{"id":8691,"date":"2011-05-12T20:12:34","date_gmt":"2011-05-13T00:12:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/?p=8691"},"modified":"2011-05-13T06:20:48","modified_gmt":"2011-05-13T10:20:48","slug":"depression-1980-dsm-iii-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/index.php\/2011\/05\/12\/depression-1980-dsm-iii-3\/","title":{"rendered":"Depression [1980]: DSM III 3…"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

I ordered a DSM III online a month or so ago [I couldn’t locate an online version]. Since I got it, I’ve periodically looked through it and my reaction is always the same. I start moving back and forth through the pages, thumbing for an anchor to what I’m reading, confused [actually a bit anxious]. The part about depression is limited to one chapter, some 19 pages long – Affective Disorders*<\/font><\/strong>. I’m amazed that after thirty years, my reaction is the same as it was the first day I read through it – something like bewildered. I’m going back through the evolution of these criteria in depression to try to understand how we ended up with the category Major Depressive Disorder<\/font><\/strong> because it’s such a heterogeneous group – and the whole point of nosology is to refine diagnoses in the service of understanding disease and arriving at effective treatment strategies. I’ve been convinced that we’ll never do that with such an all-inclusive category. My recent reviews of the research and clinical trials of treatments has only strengthened that belief. But now that I’ve gotten to the DSM III, I find myself drawn back to that confusing time in my own life when it came out, and my reaction to it.<\/p>\n

I couldn’t find it on the Internet, so I’m transcribing the actual criteria myself from the book [a non-touch typist like me does that slowly]. I know that this stuff is boring, but it’s what I’ve got to do. I’m going to put the main outline in this post, but relegate the specific criteria to a pop-up page [referenced in red<\/font><\/strong>]. I’d actually encourage you to look back at the specifics, because they so radically changed the direction of psychiatry in ways that weren’t yet apparent at the time. Here’s the broad outline if the DSM III classification of Affective Disorders which started with these words:<\/div>\n