New Scientist has a good piece which outlines the current state of play in the contentious and recently delayed revision of the forthcoming psychiatric diagnostic manual, the DSM 5.
If you’ve been following the bad-tempered tussling among the psychiatric community over the re-writing of the manual, you probably won’t find much new in the main piece but it is a great summary and is accompanied by some examples of contentious disorders that are being considered for the new version.
These include complicated grief, a form of extended and unresolved grieving; changes to ‘gender identity disorder’, which currently describes the state of feeling like you’re a different gender; and hebephilia, a sexual interest in pubescent children.
The NewSci article is also accompanied by an interesting editorial that argues that the American Psychiatric Association should ditch the book and move to a database format where individual diagnoses could be updated when necessary as new evidence requires.
Link to NewSci article ‘Psychiatry’s civil war’.
Link to editorial ‘Psychiatry’s bible: Its time has passed’.
Mind Hacks 