Hi,

I heard these two psychiatrists talk on NPR about the DSM.

Allen Frances -- was involved in putting together the DSM IV. He thinks that drug companies have made lots of money selling mood stabilizers and antipsychotics to people who may not need them.

William Carpenter -- now working on the new DSM 5 hopes that people with psychotic disorders will be identified and diagnosed earlier so that they can get appropriate help.


http://www.npr.org/2010/12/29/132407...rts-cant-agree
What's A Mental Disorder? Even Experts Can't Agree

M.

I think that more children will be harmed....
very sad what is happening all over the country....

Very simply, the list of symptoms, regardless of underlying cause, defines the diagnosis. It is a very clumsy way to diagnose people and it can be said that all of humanity would fit into DSM diagnoses at some time or another during a lifetime, and in fact, entire cultures could as well, except that if it is cultural, whew, then the "insanity" is then exempt.

Then there are the nonpsychological diagnoses. Far too many people have gotten caught up in diagnoses of bipolar, depression, schizophrenia with underlying causes as diverse as lyme disease, brain trauma, genetic defects, toxicities, and vitamin or hormone deficiencies .

All neatly wrapped up in the DSM.

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