DSM-5 Wins APA Board Approval; Scheduled for Release May 2013 December 10, 2012 News American Psychiatric Association, APA DSM-5, DSM-5 0 The American Psychiatric Association’s board of trustees has approved the fifth edition of its influential diagnostic manual, dubbed DSM-5. The board vote is the last step before the manual is formally released in May 2013. The association’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders was last revised in 1994; that edition is known colloquially as DSM-IV. According to an APA statement, changes include an end to the system of “axes” used to class diagnoses into broad groups, and an associated restructuring of diagnostic groups to bring disorders thought to be biologically related under the same headings. Also, many of the diagnostic criteria will now include so-called dimensional assessments to indicate severity of symptoms. Specific language in DSM-5 was not immediately released, and probably won't be until the formal unveiling in May. Detailed criteria that had been published on the APA's DSM5.org website for public review and comment have now been removed. However, the statement released Saturday indicated that the manual will include many of the most controversial of the proposed changes from DSM-IV. They included removal of the “bereavement exclusion” in the major depression section. In DSM-IV, a diagnosis of depression could not be made in patients who had suffered the death of a loved one until two months had elapsed. Under DSM-5, such patients may be called clinically depressed sooner, although the criteria will include advice to clinicians about distinguishing normal grief from depression that should be treated. DSM-5 will also add a diagnosis of “disruptive mood dysregulation disorder” for children older than 6 who show frequent bursts of anger along with chronic irritability. The other major change proposed for DSM-5 was a reorganization that would collapse a number of autism-related conditions treated as separate disorders in DSM-IV into a single "autism spectrum disorder" category. APA also noted that more than 160 clinicians and researchers had worked to develop DSM-5, with help from hundreds of other clinical investigators as well as thousands of comments from health professionals and the general public offered during open-comment periods. Source: MedPage Today, December 1, 2012. Comments are closed.
