Psychiatry’s latest DSM goes too far in creating new mental disorders. As chairman of the task force that created the current Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV), which came out in 1994, I learned from painful experience how small changes in the definition of mental disorders can create huge, unintended consequences.
The glowing review of Judith Warner’s new book, We’ve Got Issues, in The New York Times this week didn’t exactly catch me by surprise — anyone who has read Warner’s guest columns in recent years knows her take on psychiatric drugs — but it did bewilder me.
What if antidepressants were not just too easily available and overly prescribed by doctors—as has been argued in many venues for years now, though to no discernible effect—but didn’t even work? That’s the takeaway premise of psychology professor Irving Kirsch, Ph.D., in his new book, The Emperor’s New Drugs: Exploding the Antidepressant Myth.
A RANGE of powerful tranquillisers could be put under strict controls after being linked to a series of high-profile deaths. Home Secretary Alan Johnson has asked the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs to investigate the harm caused by the drugs, which have been linked to the deaths of Michael Jackson, Brittany Murphy and Goldsmith heiress Robyn Whitehead.
The quest to add sex addiction to the catalogue of recognized illness states is just a part of the desire of psychiatrists to identify everything as problematic. The handbook for diagnosis, known as the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM), now in its 4th edition, is the bible of mental illness. If you want to call in sick, go to the library and find a copy – it’s a treasure trove of sick-day opportunities. A new edition, the fifth, is due in 2013.
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