DSM-5 Round up: May #1

Post #245 Shortlink: http://wp.me/pKrrB-2WM

More reports on last week’s announcement by NIMH Director, Thomas Insel

BMJ News [Full report behind paywall]

Director of top research organization for mental health criticizes DSM for lack of validity

BMJ 2013; 346 doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bmj.f2954 (Published 8 May 2013)

Michael McCarthy, Seattle | May 8, 2013

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New Scientist print edition No 2196 May 11, 2013

[The first of these two print edition articles is behind a subscription]

How a scientific DSM will transform psychiatry

Peter Aldhous, Andy Coghlan, additional reporting by Sara Reardon

This article appears in the print edition THIS WEEK section under the headline

A revolution in mental health, Patients deserve better than an unscientific manual, says leading health institute

…don’t expect the landscape of mental illness to change any time soon. Insel accepts that it will take at least a decade to conduct the research necessary to devise a new approach to diagnosis. In the meantime, patients’ illnesses will continue to be diagnosed using the DSM’s symptom-based categories…

…Even the transition in research will be gradual – the NIMH isn’t going to stop funding projects based around DSM diagnoses overnight. But it is clear that new approaches will get priority in future, and with a budget of almost $1.5 billion per year, the NIMH is in a position to call the shots…

This week’s Editorial in the print edition is an edited version of the Allen Frances opinion piece published by New Scientist earlier this week:

Print edition Editorial > Opinion

Don’t count on this manual, The future of psychiatric research lies in simpler questions, by Allen Frances

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UK Independent

The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders has been updated but should we beware this manual’s diagnosis?

The book which gives doctors a checklist for mental illnesses – as made famous by The Psychopath Test – has been updated. But does it really work?

…An alternative – and free – publication, International Statistical Classification of Diseases (ICD), issued by the World Health Organisation, provides an official international classification system of mental illness that the DSM sometimes borrows. The ICD is used in Europe for clinical treatment in preference to the DSM and without the lurid headlines. The DSM, though, is increasingly influential on our way of thinking about mental health…

Mark Piesing | May 8, 2013

Comment to article from Dx Revision Watch

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For global usage of DSM v ICD by practising psychiatrists and country by country breakdown see

Slide 17 Global use of DSM-5 and ICD-10; Slide 18 Use by country breakdown http://www.aaidd.org/media/3192013.pdf

Data from The WPA-WHO Global Survey of Psychiatrists’ Attitudes Towards Mental Disorders Classification Free full paper

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UK Radio

BBC R4 Today programme

Discussion on DSM-5 | Today programme, Thurs, May 9

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b01s8qx7/Today_09_05_2013/

1 hr.50 mins in from start |  7 minutes

With James Davies, Lecturer and author of “Cracked” (has also had two articles around his book published in the Times)

Does your child really have a behavioural problem? James Davies, May 6 2013

and Prof Nick Craddock

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BBC R4 All in the Mind [One year left to listen again]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p018qfjm

Presenter Claudia Hammond

The new edition of the American Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders will be launched later this month, Professor Simon Wessely discusses its potential impact in the UK.

Duration: 9 mins at start of 28 min broadcast| Tuesday 07 May 2013 21:00 | Repeated Wed 8 May 2013 15:30

Discussion omitted any reference to, and implications for the WHO/APA International Advisory Group for the Revision of ICD-10 Mental and Behavioural Disorders commitment to strive as far as possible for harmonization between the mental health chapter of the forthcoming ICD-11 (Chapter 5) and DSM-5.

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The Scientist

NIMH to Steer Away from New Manual

The agency will no longer use the newly revised guide to mental disorders to categorize its funding priorities.

Kate Yandell | May 9, 2013

…To better classify mental disease, the NIMH has started the Research Domain Criteria (RDoC) project, which Insel said will “transform diagnosis by incorporating genetics, imaging, cognitive science, and other levels of information to lay the foundation for a new classification system.” However, biological biomarkers for mental disease are few, so Insel said that RDoC is more of a framework for future knowledge to fit into than a completed classification system…

…In order to better fill in the gaps, he said that NIMH grant applicants will be asked to think of research projects that cut across diagnoses…

…NIMH is not “ditching” the DSM completely, Insel told Time. DSM diagnostic criteria will continue to be important in the clinic, just not as guides for research.

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Not specific to recent announcement by NIMH’s, Thomas Insel

Huffington Post [Also at Psychiatric Times, Psychology Today]

Hippocratic Humility in the Face of ‘Unexplained’ Medical Problems

Allen Frances, MD | May 7, 2013

With contribution from Dr Diane O’Leary

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National Pain Report

Could Fibromyalgia Be Labeled as a Psychiatric Illness?

Celeste Cooper, RN | May 5, 2013

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