After the DSM-III and later DSM-IIIR were launched and in play, people began to look back at the origins and ask if the actual Manuals had lived up to their grand design. One obvious area of criticism was the derivation of the criteria. About the process that lead to the Feighner Criteria, they said that […]
The Robins and Guze article that lead to the DSM-III Revolution was accepted for publication in January 1970, not long after the DSM-II came out – highlighting the fact that the conflict between nature and nurture was living and well before its ink dried. While it’s seen as a Manifesto, it’s only a few lines […]
Diagnosing the D.S.M.New York Times[op-ed]By ALLEN FRANCES May 11, 2012 At its annual meeting this week, the American Psychiatric Association did two wonderful things: it rejected one reckless proposal that would have exposed nonpsychotic children to unnecessary and dangerous antipsychotic medication and another that would have turned the existential worries and sadness of everyday life […]
He who studies medicine without books sails an uncharted sea, but he who studies medicine without patients does not go to sea at all… Sir William Osler In March, I looked into the story of how the authors of the DSM-III, DSM-IIIR, and DSM-IV [Robert Spitzer and Allen Frances] came to be at odds with […]
DSM-5 Field Trials Generate Mixed Results Medscape by Deborah Brauser May 8, 2012 Preliminary results are mixed for the recently completed field trials for the upcoming Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition (DSM-5), according to the first public presentation of the findings here at the American Psychiatric Association’s (APA’s) 2012 Annual Meeting. […]
My Dad had been a ball player, but by the time I came along, he was a Coach – my uncle too. People on the street called them both ‘Coach’ and it sounded like ‘Doctor’ or ‘Mr. President’ and I felt proud. They had grown up poor. Sports were a way to escape working in […]
In Annie Proulx‘s Shipping News, the protagonist, Quoyle is learning to write headlines for the local paper: Billy: It’s finding the center of your story, the beating heart of it, that’s what makes a reporter. You have to start by making up some headlines. You know: short, punchy, dramatic headlines. Now, have a look, what […]
Newsflash From APA Meeting: DSM 5 Has Flunked its Reliability Tests Needs To Be Kept Back For Another Year DSM5 in Distress: Psychology Today by Allen J. Frances, M.D. May 6, 2012 The whole purpose of having a manual of psychiatric diagnosis is to promote diagnostic agreement. DSM III was an important milestone because it […]
It sure is quiet from up there in Philadelphia. I’m in the Georgia Mountains, but if a pin dropped in Philly at the APA, I think I’d hear it all the way down here. Waiting for news about the DSM-5 Field Trials is like listening to paint dry. The only word out that I’ve seen […]
On the eve of the DSM-5 Update of the Field Trial results at the APA Annual Meeting in Philadelphia, the Task Force director published this article: DSM Field Trials Providing Ample Critical Data Psychiatric News by David J. Kupfer, M.D. May 4, 2012 As of this month, the 12-month countdown to the release of the […]