The January 2014 issue of Research on Social Work Practice is dedicated to a critical appraisal of the new DSM. It is guest-edited by MIA blogger Jeffrey Lacasse, whose editorial, “After DSM-5: A Critical Mental Health Research Agenda for the 21st Century“, summarizes the challenges facing researchers, clinicians, clients and the general public in the wake of DSM-5.
The issue also includes articles by authors familiar to the MIA community, such as Allen Frances (“Should Social Workers Use DSM-5?” ), Joanne Cacciatore (“When a child dies: A critical analysis of grief-related controversies in DSM-5“) , Steven Wong (“A Critique of the Diagnostic Construct Schizophrenia” ), and Eileen Gambrill (“The DSM as a Major Form of Dehumanization in the Modern World“)
Good article! One thing I hadn’t read before was that DSM IV-TR actually mentioned that brain changes associated with “schizophrenia” may result from the use of “antipsychotic” drugs, but this reference was deleted from DSM 5, even though more evidence now exists indicating that such changes may result from the drugs. The DSM 5 also deleted a reference to the fact that antidepressants can cause akathesia, which can lead to suicidal behavior. The only purpose for removing references like this that I can think of would be to promote drugs and insure that clinicians don’t think too much about possible problems with the drugs, even though these issues are crucially important.
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Bingo! Methinks you’ve hit the proberbial nail smack dab on its little head! An unholy alliance was created when psychiatrists got into bed with the drug companies. Now the two are so intwined together that I doubt there is any way to separate them. The only way to deal with this situation is to lop off both their heads!
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I suspect it should be entwined rather than intwined but you get the general idea.
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I agree, very important and truthful article. Thank you for trying to enlighten the social workers, they need it.
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