DSM-5 Summary

In my future social work career, it is imperative to be cognizant of my personal experiences and preconceptions regarding mental illness. As I participant in evaluation and diagnosis of mental illness, I will utilize a blank slate mentality. I will strive to prevent previous clients’ behavior, the individual’s current diagnoses, and personal judgments to cloud my diagnosis or interactions.

Top researchers and clinicians from around the world to be members of our DSM-5 Task Force, Work Groups and Study Groups. These are experts in neuroscience, biology, genetics, statistics, epidemiology, social and behavioral sciences, nosology, and public health. These members participate on a strictly voluntary basis and encompass several medical and mental health disciplines including psychiatry, psychology, pediatrics, nursing and social work. (“Who was involved,” para. 6)

The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) is currently the most frequently used way of standardizing and defining psychological disorders. However, the classification systems such as DSM have advantages and disadvantages. The major weakness of DSM is that it judges symptoms superficially and ignores other possible important factors. The major strength of DSM is that it enables categorization of psychological disorders.

The strengths when working with clients on a medical model perspective is that the use of the DSM provides a common language to use in the medical community. The DSM provides reliability and structural guideline to each mental disorder. The structural guidelines in the DSM provide an organized list of criteria and specifiers to help determine the severity of the mental disorder. When diagnosing a client, there are many similar signs and symptoms to each mental disorder; thus, the DSM provides the clinician information about differential diagnosis, prevalence, possible co-morbidity, age of onset, and progressive development of symptoms. Hence, focusing on the medical model and using the DSM can be beneficial to both the client and the clinician providing treatment.

The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) has a number of features. First of all, every disorder is identified using a name and a numerical code. In addition, the manual provides the criteria for diagnosing each disorder as well as establishes subtypes of a disorder and examples that would illustrate the disorder. The manual goes further by addressing the typical age of onset, culturally related information, gender-related information, prevalence of a disorder, typical clinical course of a disorder, typical predisposing factors of a disorder and genetic family patterns of a disease (Summers, 2009). The DSM-IV is a tool that is used by mental health practitioners and social service workers. As has been demonstrated

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

When it comes to social work, evidence-based treatment is a very popular form of therapy. The DSM-5 focuses on evidence-based treatment as well with “developing a comprehensive treatment plan that is informed by the individual’s culture and social context” (American Psychiatric Association, 2013, p. 19). I believe that the DSM-5 is an asset to trained social work clinicians to

Repetitive behaviors (e.g., hand washing, ordering, checking) or mental acts (e.g., praying, counting, repeating words silently) that the individual feels driven to perform in response to an obsession or according

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

One of the characteristics of a good parent is being concerned over their child’s well being and being their advocate in life. Many recognize their shortcomings when it comes to background knowledge about medical related things which is why the seek the authoritative advice of medical proffesionals, however for some do this almost blindly. As our technology advances have continued to develop at extreme rates were are finally having the tools to better analyze different disorders. Now on the fifth version of the DSM some disorders have been separated out as we learn that it was two vague while others have been combined as we increase our understanding. The scary part is how popularized it has all become in the increase of shared information.

Hi Katlyn! Your position on guideline for social workers was quite interesting, especially your experience. The only interaction I have had are with school and family social workers and my experience was that they are not doctors so, just like teachers they are not supposed to even suggest that a child should be prescribed or take medication, that is the responsibility of the Psychotherapist. (If my recollection from my previous years as a foster parent is correct).

Is society beginning to over diagnosed and stereotype learning and behavioral problems in young children? Are physicians also over prescribing medication and compensating for their diagnoses? These are all questions being discusses due to this article. While the DSM-IV is an excellent resource for helping to categorize mental illness, it has begun to set arbitrary lines between normal and abnormal? Labels have begun to limit individual diagnosises, and alterations in mental illness. Winnie the Pooh is just one of many children’s stories being

Results, analyses, and assessments in this article would contribute to evidence based practice in social work. Social work is an expanding field in settings and situations such as these. To study more quantitatively with qualitative longitudinal study would improve how clinicians are able to accurately assess and serve those needs. The analysis of human behavior by defining what is it that makes some patients reject programs like YAS mentioned in the

The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 5th edition (DSM-5) has misdiagnose, Neurodevelopmental Disorders, Schizophrenia, depressive disorders and obsessive compulsive disorders just to name a few. The book has been revised and that has put a lot of people in danger. By controlling all of societies behavior in a book that can be edited is not only risky, but society changes and so does our psyche. What one doctor, scientist, pscyhologist can consider normal other in other countries may not. How can one nation be in control based off of one book. They have misdiagnosed healthy people possibly people that suffered from temporary emotional stresses.

Ever since the American Psychological Association (APA) began the process of revising the DSM-IV, stakeholders, clinicians, and families have expressed many concerns about the impending changes (Nishawala, 2014). The following paper strives