Quick links from the past week in mind and brain news:The Wall Street Journal reports that 'picky eating' is being considered as a new mental illness for the next DSM. I think they're just trolling us now.Becoming angry in negotiations was thought to be a widely effective strategy, but not, it turns out, when negotiating with people from an East Asian background. New study covered by The BPS Rese
10 Vote(s)
July 10, 2010
2010-07-09 Spike activity
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June 29, 2010
Why Is the DSM Classification So Messy and Atheoretical? Because None of the Theories Is Proven and Widely Accepted
Every month or so, someone (usually very smart and passionate) sends me a detailed proposal for a new diagnostic system offered as an alternative to the jumbled, pedestrian, atheoretical, and purely descriptive method used in DSM.
8 Vote(s)
8 Vote(s)
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March 5, 2010
The DSM Process: More Questions Than Answers?
Posted on February 3, I asked the question, CAUTION! Who Should Be the DSM5 Diagnostician? I suggested that we needed to pay as much attention to who would be designated as the diagnostician as on the revised diagnostic criteria.
8 Vote(s)
8 Vote(s)
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March 2, 2010
A Shorter history of psychiatric diagnosis
The Wall Street Journal has an excellent article by historian of psychiatry, Edward Shorter, about the raft of new changes in the proposed revision of the DSM-V 'psychiatric bible' and how they reflect our changing ideas about mental illness.For some reason the piece has been given the stupid of title of 'Why Psychiatry Needs Therapy', which is a mystery as it doesn't mention anything along these
14 Vote(s)
14 Vote(s)
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February 26, 2010
Is the Clinical Significance Criterion Significant?
The draft version of DSM-V: Revenge of the Fallen has been online for a few weeks (1) and much has already been written about it (1, 2, 3, 4). Much focus has been on what is "new" and what is "gone." One feature that is shared by the majority of DSM diagnoses, the "clinical significance" criterion, might be on its way out. Typically this criterion read
16 Vote(s)
16 Vote(s)
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February 19, 2010
The Art of Sharing DSM
In his recent blog posting, Dr Steven Moffic proposed that only psychiatrists be allowed to certify DSM diagnoses. While I disagree, I commend Dr Moffic for raising this controversial topic, which inevitably brings up a number of basic issues challenging our profession.
11 Vote(s)
11 Vote(s)
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February 15, 2010
Asperger’s, Autism and Ambivalence: On Losing My Label
The DSM changes. Hot topic du jour. It seems to have engendered heated feelings on both sides. But me? I just don't know what I feel. <!--break-->Had you asked me a few years ago, what my feelings were on this issue - I'd probably land on the side that many with Asperger's do - in defense of the Asperger's label. Now, I'm not so sure. My feelings are
7 Vote(s)
7 Vote(s)
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February 13, 2010
What is severe autism?
We have to wait, patiently, for the DSM-V people to cough up their system for ranking and classifying all autistics according autism "severity." In the meantime, some recently reported data are worth mulling over. First, here is the most current DSM-V autism "severity" ranking-system proposal, and here is my response, including information about instruments commonly claimed to measure autism "sev
9 Vote(s)
9 Vote(s)
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February 12, 2010
New Proposed Changes Posted For Leading Manual Of Mental Disorders
The American Psychiatric Association today released the proposed draft diagnostic criteria for the fifth edition of Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM)...
8 Vote(s)
8 Vote(s)
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Proposed DSM-V changes are now online and available for public comments
6 Vote(s)