Action for M.E. submission to DSM-5 public review process

Action for M.E. submission to DSM-5 public review process

Post #36 Shortlink: http://wp.me/pKrrB-FK

Submissions

Patient organisations, professionals and advocates submitting comments in the DSM-5 draft proposal review process are invited to provide copies of their submissions for collation on this page: http://wp.me/PKrrB-AQ

Action for M.E.

Statement to the American Psychiatric Association in relation to the possibility of M.E./CFS being classified as a psychiatric disorder (submitted last night):

http://www.afme.org.uk/news.asp?newsid=812

Complex Somatic Symptom Disorder
20 April 2010

Action for M.E.’s statement to the American Psychiatric Association in relation to the possibility of M.E./CFS being classified as a psychiatric disorder:

Action for M.E. would like to thank the American Psychiatric Association’s for the opportunity to comment on the the fifth edition of its Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5).

We were gravely concerned and alarmed to hear of the possibility of CFS/ME being classified as a psychiatric disorder, based on comments made in their Work Group on somatoform disorders.

As the largest by far CFS/ME charity in the UK, Action for M.E. would stress that CFS/M.E. is a long-term and disabling physical illness. M.E. is classified by the World Health Organisation in ICD 10 G93.3 as a neurological disorder. There is a large and growing body of evidence from scientific research and from clinicians which supports this position.

We oppose any attempt to classify CFS/M.E. as a psychiatric disorder either explicitly or implicitly.