NIMH dumps the DSM 2 weeks before the launch of DSM 5 !

[[we...]]

Good news.

 

the National Institute of Mental Heath dumps the outdated and obsolete DSM.

 

  "... is an agency of the United States Department of Health and Human Services and is the primary agency of the United States government responsible for biomedical and health-related research.  NIMH is the largest research organization in the world specializing in mental illness. ""

 

"Patients with mental disorders deserve better. NIMH has launched the Research Domain Criteria (RDoC) project to transform diagnosis by incorporating genetics, imaging, cognitive science, and other levels of information to lay the foundation for a new classification system. "

 

http://www.nimh.nih.gov/about/director/2013/transforming-diagnosis.shtml

[[Zi...]]

Good news.

 

the National Institute of Mental Heath dumps the outdated and obsolete DSM.

 

  "... is an agency of the United States Department of Health and Human Services and is the primary agency of the United States government responsible for biomedical and health-related research.  NIMH is the largest research organization in the world specializing in mental illness. ""

 

"Patients with mental disorders deserve better. NIMH has launched the Research Domain Criteria (RDoC) project to transform diagnosis by incorporating genetics, imaging, cognitive science, and other levels of information to lay the foundation for a new classification system. "

 

http://www.nimh.nih.gov/about/director/2013/transforming-diagnosis.shtml

 

I am on record in this forum calling the DSM a "book of fairy tales."  More precisely, it is a list of "mental disorders" plus symptoms that are supposed to be diagnostic criteria for the disorder. For example, if nine symptoms are listed for a disorder, the disorder can be diagnosed if a patient has five of those symptoms. Anyone who understands what a medical "differential diagnosis" means finds the DSM laughable.

 

The DSM was invented from whole cloth by the APA, the professional organization of the Psychiatrists. The goal of the DSM was to allow Psychiatrist to adopt the "medical model" of practice where a physician makes a diagnosis and then prescribes a course of treatment. This was done decades ago at a time when Psychiatry was in danger of extinction because medical students were shunning the field.

 

Around the same time, drug companies introduced psychotropic drugs that were suppose to put an end to mental disorders. The APA and the drug companies formed an alliance that rescued Psychiatry from obscurity and made huge profits for the drug companies. We know who the losers were (we are) because mental disorders have risen exponentially during the period that the DSM and the "wonder drugs"  have been in existence.

 

The problem with the DSM is that it is not based on any science or objective studies. It is an opinion book written by a handful of Psychiatrists who have a vested interest in the irrational way that psychiatry is practiced today. There is no basis in objective reality for basing a disorder such as depression on a shopping list of five out of nine subjective symptoms.

 

For a thorough treatment of this subject read Robert Whitaker's "Anatomy of an Epidemic."

 

For the NIMH to abandon the DSM in favor of better science can only be a positive thing. Nevertheless, we can expect vigorous opposition from the APA. It is the professional organization of Psychiatrists in the same way that the AMA is the professional organization of real physicians. Calling the DSM into question directly attacks the work of the APA from the last 40 years.

[[Ol...]]

It's about time!

 

Thanks, Wellness, for keeping us informed...also appreciated your help when I needed help with titration calculations.  The teaspoon titration works well!

 

OlPal