By John Gever, Senior Editor, MedPage Today
Published: February 29, 2012
With crunch time looming for the ongoing revision of the psychiatry profession's diagnostic manual, critics hoping to stop what they see as destructive changes are taking their campaign to the consumer media.
In early February, British psychologists and psychiatrists unhappy with proposed changes in the fifth edition of the American Psychiatric Association's (APA) Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders -- the DSM-5, in its forthcoming incarnation -- staged a successful press conference in London, which generated news coverage around the world.
Meanwhile, the most prominent U.S.-based critic of DSM-5, Allen Frances, MD -- chairman of the task force that developed the fourth DSM edition in 1994 -- has become a regular contributor to the popular Huffington Post website. Last week, he suggested there that the government should force the APA to abandon some of the proposed changes.
And the explosion in social media has allowed other, less well-connected mental health professionals and interested laypeople to create their own platforms for airing concerns about DSM-5 -- starting websites and writing comments on others.
At least in part, the rising furor is driven by the DSM-5 revision schedule. The APA has committed to releasing the final version at its May 2013 meeting. Its internal process for ratifying it requires that it be in essentially final form this winter.
Thus, only a few months remain for critics to sway the DSM-5 leadership.
