It’s hard to believe that it has been a year already since I first wrote about the DSM (the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders) in a post called “What It Is and Why You Should Care.” The diagnostic criteria for the fifth edition were just approved by the American Psychological Association (APA) Board of Trustees this past weekend, in preparation for this edition’s publication in May 2013.

In my earlier post, I expressed concern over the growth in the list of diagnoses that appeared with each new edition of the DSM, and whether there was a correlation to the overall growth in mental illness diagnosis and medication treatment. Obviously, that’s a pretty tough case to make, but it did generate some really great conversation in the blog post’s comments. There are other folks out there besides me who are worried that the DSM’s evolution is having a trickle-down effect, the outcome being a society prone to over-medicate people who are experiencing normal emotions, e.g. the temper tantrums of a child, bereavement grief, etc.

Unfortunately, the DSM-5 diagnostic criteria were approved in pretty much the same state as they were when these concerns were raised in 2011 and earlier.Continue Reading