The Diagnostic Structure Of The Dsm V

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).

The statistics and facts above have demonstrated that removing Asperger’s Disorder from the DSM-5, as a mental health diagnosis, negatively affects an entire population of people, referred to as Aspies. The underlying issue is the power the DSM-5 manual has on overall mental health to determine identities, diagnosis, treatment health and mental health services, educational services and more. One DSM change has power to affect an entire population of people with developmental disabilities. It is important to understand how this affects our society as a whole by examining how this problem affects family, religion, government, and economy.

As with all previous diagnostic manuals, the DSM-5 (APA, 2013) aims to provide a ‘common language’ for describing psychopathology in order to provide the best patient care for both the individuals. As useful as this manual has been in the past, worries have expressed with regards to future direction that psychiatry is moving towards following the many updates and additions made to the diagnostic criteria within the DSM-5 it has been argued “when does psychological suffering become an illness?”. The purpose of this writing is to critically discuss the necessity of a diagnosis from two stand points, firstly critiquing the negative impacts of a diagnosis for an individual and secondly the implications of a diagnosis at a professional level, the research presented points towards a diagnosis is becoming less necessary in today’s society. Lastly the future of psychiatry will be discussed to show how if diagnostic criteria becomes more scientific based then there may be more benefits

DSM Diagnosis: Include behaviors & symptoms consistent with diagnosis. Axis I: 295.90 Schizophrenia; Axis II: none; Axis III: deferred; Axis IV: primary and social

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

The most well-known and widely used diagnostic classification system is the DSM-V (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders). In the early 1900, steps were taken to follow a system similar to the DSM that is currently used today. The DSM-I was first published in 1952 by the American Psychiatric Association, with the DSM-II being released in 1968 as an amendment of the original (Pomerantz, 2014). While the earlier editions of the DSM were similar to each other, they were very different from the other editions later released (Lilienfeld & Landfield, 2008). There were three very broad categories in the earlier editions: neuroses - which would include mood disorders such as major depression and anxiety disorders; psychoses - which would include disorders like schizophrenia; and character disorders - which are known today as personality disorders (Blashfield, Flanagan, & Raley, 2010).

In their 2014 study, Kessler, et al analyzed a representative sample of 5,428 Regular Army Soldiers from the April to December 2011 AAS. This specific subset of data, extracted from 327 group sessions, did not include information from those deployed to a combat zone nor did it include any data from activated Army Reserve and National Guard personnel. The purpose of the study was to evaluate the “prevalence of 30 day DSM-IV mental disorders among nondeployed Soldiers and to determine the extent in which role impairments associated with 30-day disorders differ depending on whether the disorders had pre- vs post-enlistment onsets.”42

When DSM was released, traditional subsections of autism was lumped into one category. One of the benefits of doing this, in my opinion, is because it allowed psychologists the ability to diagnosis clients better. The generalization of diagnosis of autism makes it easier on psychologists to diagnosis. With that in mind, not having the specific categories for autism does not give specified treatments for their symptoms. When there are several categories for autism in the DSM 5, the DSM 5 gives particular treatments for each category. I think when it is more specific oriented the treatments are more likely to succeed in the long term. Then the treatments are more distinct to that particular autism.

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

DSM-IV outlines the criteria that must be present in order for substance dependence to occur. Of the seven criteria’s for this to occur, a total of three must occur and take place within a twelve month consecutive time period (Levinthal, 2012). Tolerance, withdrawal, and abandonment of normalcy are three of the criteria that could identify or lead to the discovering of the substance dependence. Increased tolerance or decreased benefits to the drug of choice is identifiable with the person becoming addicted to it (Levinthal, 2012). When a person continues to take a drug, prescription or illegal, the more their body adjusts to having the drug in their system and the more they must take to reap the benefits that initially occurred. The longer

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”

In the DSM-IV there is information outlined for Cultural Formulation when diagnosing and assessing clients. This information outlined offers a review of the clients cultural background, the effects that their cultural differences can have on the relationship between the clinician and the client, and the evaluation and expression of dysfunction and symptoms. Also provided in the formulation, there is information in regards to how to assess the client based on their cultural background. The following categories are as follows:

It seems that the disorder started when Hannibal as a child was traumatized when he witnessed the murder and cannibalism of his younger sister. After the traumatic event, it seems Hannibal slowly developed symptoms of conduct disorders (CD), a disorder defined by DSM-IV as a childhood disorder that includes aggression, violations of social norms, lying, and vandalism in extreme cases. (American Psychiatric Association, 2000) With symptoms of CD, it seems Hannibal’s ASPD symptoms started in his childhood which then became a chronic illness. The symptoms in the show did not just randomly appear, it seems that there were specific stressors such as the death of his sister Mischa which caused a psychological trauma. The trauma was so devastating that it cause Hannibal to turn himself into the same psychological killer as the Nazis back in his childhood. Although Hannibal is a psychopathic killer, the show suggest that he does not kill for fun but rather killing off those who are an annoyance and exhibits poor taste or bad manners. By being a psychiatrist and a surgeon, Hannibal also have all the social power over others to easily ensure his victims just to satisfy his urges to eat their

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

Dr. Hannibal Lector is diagnosed with antisocial personality disorder. Antisocial personality disorder is defined as a personality disorder in which the person (usually a man) shows a lack of conscience for wrongdoing and a lack of respect for the rights of others, in other words, he knows what he’s doing is wrong, he just doesn’t care, and he lives by his own set of rules. This is evident throughout the film when fails to conform to social norms with respect to lawful behaviors and repeatedly performs acts that are grounds for arrest. For instance, attacking and killing multiple policemen. Another sign of this disorder is his deceitfulness, as indicated by repeated lying, use of aliases, or conning others for personal profit or pleasure.