Prescriptions for Psychiatric Trouble

[Butterfly]

Prescriptions for Psychiatric Trouble
By SALLY SATEL
19 February, 2010


http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703525704575061851569968656.html


Last week, the American Psychiatric Association unveiled the much-awaited blueprint for the next edition of its official handbook of diagnoses, the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, fifth edition, or DSM V. Outlets from the New York Times to the Hindustan Times heralded its arrival. ABC News announced, "Big changes for DSM, the psychiatrists' bible."

Such fanfare makes sense. The DSM is as much a cultural institution as a clinical one. As an arbiter of what is normal and what is not, the manual also plays an important role in insurance and disability determinations. In the courtroom it can bear on criminal culpability.

Scores of revisions have been proposed by nearly 200 experts under the supervision of the DSM V task force, which will release a final version of DSM V in 2013—19 years after the publication of the DSM IV.