DSM-5 Summary

69 percent of the creators of the fifth Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders reported that the DSM had connections to the pharmaceutical industry (Cosgrove & Krimsky, 2012). Robert Whitakers research in his book “The Anatomy of an Epidemic” showed that many of the medications that are prescribed for psychiatric disorders actually end up hurting the patient more than helping them (Whitaker, 2010). Often people are prescribed medication for a psychiatric disorder which is actually just a pathologized version of normal human behavior. Taking these medications for essentially no reason eventually harms the patient because they frequently cause episodic and moderate emotional behavioral problems to be severe, chronic and disabling ones (Whitaker, 2010). This leads to a further rise in mental disorders, actual mental disorders. When we use drugs to get rid of symptoms we weaken our capacity to cope with the situations and we remove our ability to transcend the problem on our own. The research shows that using these drugs for short term treatment can be effective for some people but often they increase the chance that the person who is taking the drug becomes chronically ill in the long run (Whitaker, 2010). Therefore many people, who are treated for a mental disorder that could most often be treated with therapy, end up

These services are mainly psychotherapy and biomedical therapy. Psychotherapy is understanding your mind and illness, helping cope with feelings and symptoms, and changing behavior patterns that cause symptoms of the illness. When children don’t use the proper mental health services, they are at a greater risk for difficulties later in life such as substance abuse, suicide, or involvement with the correctional system (Turner). Therefore it is, important to not only attend psychotherapy but to also be on the proper medication when dealing any mental illness. In the American Psychiatric Association’s new DSM-5, fifteen new disorders are listed. Some mental health professionals fear that medication will now be given to those who would have earlier been seen as the “worried well” (Rubinstein, 2013). The key is to distinguish when one is mentally ill and needs assistance and when they are just going through a tough situation. Many psychologists have been through the same situation, and could help guide past that tough time in

Although we tend to think that drugs are here to comfort and heal people, we must also take into account that behind every drug, we have a drug company that is making millions of dollars off of consumers who by their products. Behind every consumer, we have a doctor that is recommending and prescribing the medication. In “The Medicated Child,” we learn that the researchers who advocate the use of psychiatric medications, receive enormous support from drug companies. Firsthand doctors inform us that theses drug industry funded studies influence their decisions on what drugs to “push” or prescribe. This is a major conflict of interest because the decisions and results of the studies are

The controversy and criticism surrounding the DSM -5 models has raised questions about its credibility and has raised concerns from the public on the reliability and effectiveness. Problems with this classification system is the attempt to promote preventive psychiatry by introducing how

One of the greatest concerns of psychotropic drug use in children and adolescents is that this type of medication is overprescribed. According to a report by the Food and Drug Administration, as of September 2009, “more than 500,000 children and adolescents in America are now taking antipsychotic drugs.” (Wilson, 2010) 500,000 is definitely a large number, but considering the fact that approximately one in ten children in the United States suffer from various mental illnesses, this number is actually quite low. The main reason people believe this medication is overprescribed is because many parents are simply looking for an easy way to quell their child’s hyperactivity. “’Families sometimes feel the need for a quick fix,’ Dr. Gleason said. ‘That’s often the prescription pad. But I’m concerned that when a child sees someone who prescribes but doesn’t do therapy, they’re closing the door that can make longer-lasting change.’” (Wilson, 2010)

From time to time we all have periods of sadness, unhappy thoughts. Among the United States population, around eight to ten percent suffer from a form of depression as unipolar depression. Depressive and bipolar disorders show to be a principal cause of disability, without cure a person can have a tough experience with relationships, work, and social activities. Substance abuse disorders are becoming an rampant. The need for instant indulgence has become more and more widespread in the world. The DSM-5 shows the symptoms checklist for diagnosis of substance abuse disorder (see table 1.3 in appendix a), and according to Comer, (2014) “the substances people misuse fall into several categories: depressants, stimulants, hallucinogens, and cannabis”

Discuss the strengths and weaknesses of DSM-IV TR, as well as new changes for DSM-V.

Drugs are poisoning our society. Our children are being given “psychotropic drugs at an alarming rate” (Rapoport, 2013). It seems that some of these mental health care

In less than a years time, Kyle Warren had been seen by four different medical doctors, each one with their own diagnosis that included autism, bipolar disorder (also known as manic depression), insomnia, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and oppositional defiant disorder (ODD). Kyle's pill regimen kept multiplying, consuming daily harmful cocktail of mind- altering drugs including Risperdal (anti-psychotic), Prozac (antidepressant), Adderall (psycho-stimulant) and two sleeping medicines. Kyle Warren was only eighteen months old at the time (Wilson 11). Kyles story is not rare, in fact, it has became what I refer to as a “to common” case. For that matter, it was a story much like this one that got me interested in the

During the psychopharmacology era not only, a big population of adults started to get diagnosed as mentally ill, but children too. Before this era, our society used to see children as individuals whose mood and emotions are regularly changing. Society’s expectation was that those children were going to behave differently when they grow up until psychiatry started to believe that this type of children suffer from a mental illness. According to Whitaker, Ronald Kessler, a psychiatrist from Harvard Medical School concludes “Depression, mania, and mania-like symptoms are all comparatively common among children and adolescents in the general population” (217). Some psychiatrists believe that psychiatric

It’s simply easy to discard a young adult with a hint of depression or anxiety in society’s eyes. In fact, depression is a fickle box, a diverse illness, with different prior causes and abstract theories (Mukherjee, New York Times Magazine, 2012). Most adults might be under a false impression that it’s a normal for children to have severe mood swings. As for the adults who have worked under the physiatric/medical field, knew professionally that wasn’t the case. Antidepressants is the key ingredient and solution for these young adults to handle for their own mental problems. Con: However, The U.S Food and Drug Administration slapped “black box” warning on antidepressants, with even a small minority chance of increased suicide risk, behind the agency's strongest safety alert (Olson, Omaha World-Herald, 2005).

While reviewing the article Diagnosing for Status and Money, Summary of the Critique of the DSM, a few things seemed to jump off the page. The DSM-5 while a well written and no longer intimidating to me appears to have a slant towards managed care organizations vice actual counselors. Having a manual that provides simplistic codes universally used between doctors that treat physical ailments and those who treat psychological ailments is critical; however, the focus must always be the patient. The text contains subjective qualifiers which provides the counselor the ability to use multiple diagnosis, either over diagnosing or underdiagnosing. The DSM-5 appears to provide care from a medication management prospective over psychotherapy

Social workers routinely find themselves making important decisions concerning their clients ethical issues or dilemmas. Sometimes the worker has time to weigh all possible problem-solving options available to them. However, most times the workers are on their own in finding the best solutions for their clients. No matter the situation, a worker should always do everything in their

While reading over the introduction to the DSM-5 I was impressed. I have never looked at any DSM or really any mental health disorders thus far in my studies. I was mostly impressed with the strive to continue making the DSM more useful and understanding. Some things that are in the introduction to the DSM-5 that caught my attention was that the Task Force was very involved in trying to find a balance between the different disorders without confusing them together (p. 5). Another point that I found important was that the overall goal for the DSM-5 was “the degree to which two clinicians could independently arrive at the same diagnosis for a given patient” (American Psychiatric Association, 2013, p. 7). This is a strong reasoning to improve the DSM and I am actually stocked that it took this long to change things because Robert Spritzer (a psychiatrist of the twentieth century who became have a strong part in developing the DSM-III and the DSM-IIIR), back in 1974 noticed the central issue being the problem of diagnosis and psychiatrists not being able to agree on the same disorders (Spiegel, 2005).

One major change in the category of the substance-related disorders is that DSM–5 uses an overarching concept “substance use disorder” rather than two distinguished concepts in DSM–IV, which are “substance abuse” and “substance dependence.” As the diagnostic categorization changed, two sets of criteria – 4 aspects for “abuse” and 7 aspects for “dependence” – are replaced with a single set of criteria – 11 aspects for “substance use disorder” – with 3 levels of severity (mild: 2-3, moderate: 4-5, or severe: 6 or more) sub-classification. The contents of criteria are almost same, however, a criterion of legal problem is omitted and a new criterion that asks craving to use the specific substance is added. Another change is that DSM-5 classifies 10 classes of substances in addition to 1 addictive disorder whereas DSM-IV-TR recognizes 13 classes of substances. For example, DSM-5 puts together Amphetamine-Related and Cocaine-Related Disorders into Stimulant-Related Disorders with sub-categories (Amphetamine-type, Cocaine, or other stimulants). On the other hand, for almost all substance-induced disorders, the same criteria of intoxication and withdrawal are used in both DSM-5 and DSM-IV-TR (e.g. Alcohol intoxication, and alcohol withdrawal).