Allen Frances, professor of child psychiatry at Duke University and chair of the DSM IV (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders) task force hit the nail on the head in a recent commentary “Why So Many Epidemics of Childhood Mental Disorders?” in the Journal of Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics. Because he makes his argument so clearly and persuasively (and the full article is only available to those who subscribe to the journal) I will quote it at length.
On 22 May, the American Psychiatric Association (APA) published DSM-5, the fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, after months, perhaps even years, of speculation about its contents.
Its critics warned that DSM-5 would lead to the further overdiagnosis of children and adults.The Economist reported that 11 per cent of American school-age children have been diagnosed with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and that DSM-5 would likely lead to even more ADHD diagnoses.
The alarm bell was sounded Thursday for what apparently is a new drug of choice among college students who pull “all nighters”. The new study drug is Adderall, a stimulant that is potentially dangerous. Senator Chuck Schumer says its use is spreading. He says as many as 35% of college students use Adderall.
Back in caveman days I understand that women were sent to the woods during their time of the month. Those insensitive cavemen. Actually, cavemen fare pretty well compared to modern psychiatrists.
Psychiatrists just label you mentally disordered if you struggle with your monthly cycle. According to psychiatry’s newly revised diagnostic bible, the DSM-5, which I am holding in my hot little hands, women who show typical signs of PMS are diagnosable with a brand new mental illness.
Prescriptions for some of the most powerful psychiatric drugs on the market — so-called “second-generation” antipsychotics, or SGAs — to youth aged 18 and under increased 18-fold in British Columbia alone between 1996 and 2011, a new study finds, with some of the highest increases in prescriptions to boys as young as six.
Britain’s premier institute for the study of mental illness has become embroiled in a damaging row over its decision to invite a disgraced US academic to give the inaugural lecture for a new research centre.
The decision by the Institute of Psychiatry at Kings College, in central London, Europe’s largest psychiatric research organisation, to invite Professor Charles Nemeroff, an expert in the treatment of depression, has split the psychiatric profession and been attacked by members of the institute itself.
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