American Psychiatric Association updating to DSM V in 2013 to include Broader Diagnosis for Disorders

While many attorneys deal with the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) in the context of criminal competency examinations, the news about the coming changes in DSM V have other, broad implications for mental health care, education and drug company profits.  


The National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) and the American Psychiatric Association (APA) initiated a DSM-V Research Planning Conference in 1999.  Work groups are developing draft updates to the chapters of the existing DSM IV.  The American Psychiatric Association reports

The work groups began meeting in late 2007. While the 13 work groups reflect the diagnostic categories of psychiatric disorders in the previous edition DSM-IV, it is expected that those categories will evolve to better reflect new scientific understanding. With the understanding that some continuity from DSM-IV to DSM-V is desirable to maintain order in the practice of psychiatry and continuity in research studies, there has been no pre-set limitation on the nature and degree of change that work groups can recommend for DSM-V.

However, NPR has run an interesting piece highlighting how the updates, which will include broader definitions of many disorders, can dramatically impact school funding for special education programs, as well as drug company bottom lines. 

But [the DSM revision is] not without controversy: The proposed changes suggested this year have sparked a kind of civil war within psychiatry .... Allen Frances, [ ] blames himself for what he calls the "Epidemic of Asperger's." Frances edited the last edition of the DSM, and he's also the new DSM's most prominent critic.  Frances is the one who put the word Asperger's in the DSM in the first place, thereby making it an official mental disorder.

That report chronicles the impact of the broader definition of the disorder to drive an "over diagnosis" of the condition to allow for increased funding for special education, as well as patient demand for new drugs marketed to adults and children.


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