DSM, Diagnoses, and Debate: The Many Dimensions of Mental Health
One of the biggest debates surrounding the field of psychology and its practitioners today is the debate concerning how exactly mental health diagnoses should be made. What defines a mental illness? Who determines what constitutes each specific illness and what gives them the credentials to do so? In the early years of psychology, this very issue contributed to the struggle psychologists faced in legitimizing their field as a science. Poor diagnostic techniques and lack of standardization of diagnoses made early psychological ventures appear more philosophically-based than factual and scientific. Today, however, we have the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental disorders (DSM for short), first created in 1952 as a collective effort by the American Psychiatric Association to standardize psychological diagnoses and further legitimize the field of psychological study. While the original DSM was a breakthrough in psychological study and treatment for the mentally ill, specifics on the diagnoses are still fiercely debated, and definitions are continually being revised and reworded to include and exclude certain elements of specific disorders. These specific diagnostic criteria affect not only the psychologists doing the diagnosing — they also greatly impact the people themselves who are being diagnosed.
The debate over how exactly to diagnose patients and what constitutes each individual illness has become particularly relevant again recently, as the fifth version of the DSM was released just a few short years ago in 2013. It was released to many mixed emotions over the changes that had been made from the previous version. Many psychologists are concerned with the fact that the DSM-V still emphasizes categorical diagnosis, maintaining the need for patients to meet specific criteria for disease diagnosis, which critics believe is outdated and less clinically relevant. Some have even begun working on an entirely new classification system that relies solely on dimensional diagnosis, or diagnosing patients according to a spectrum of impairment or disability. Proponents of this method argue that someone should not have to merely meet a certain “list” of symptoms, but that the severity of their symptoms should also be weighed heavily in their diagnosis.
Not all of the updates should be criticized, however; the category for bipolar disorders, for example, has also been changed, expanded to include “an emphasis on changes in activity and energy — not just mood.” The phrase “mixed episode specifiers” has also been included in describing manic, hypomanic, and depressive episodes, allowing for more freedom in how patients describe the highs and lows related to their bipolar disorder. Categories have also been added that describe episodes of short duration and anxiety-related specifications of bipolar disorder. Thus, as it relates to bipolar disorder, the changes brought about in the DSM-V actually make diagnosis easier for patients struggling with a wide variety of symptoms, for the most part, and include categories and intricacies of the disease that may have been ignored by previous versions of the DSM.
While the clinical relevance of the DSM diagnostic criteria cannot be ignored, the changes in definition of these diagnoses and the debate surrounding them impact more than just the list of signs and symptoms needed for a specific diagnosis. What about the patients behind the disorders? How are these changes in diagnostic criteria affecting patients of specific diseases? When categories are expanded or done away with, it can have a significant influence of the patients, whose diagnoses often become an integral part of their identity. Melissa Miles McCarter, an author, academic, and publisher, reflects on her experience with bipolar and how it relates to her career and her everyday life, even becoming intertwined in the two. She says, “Without medication I deteriorate and become dysfunctional or am thrust into a deep depression followed by manic psychosis. However, if I had never had these challenges, even the bouts with severe mental illness, would I still be the same person — and would I want to be?” Another example of the effects diagnostic criteria can have on mental health patients is in the removal of Asperger’s Syndrome, placing patients that previously met that criteria into a new broadened category renamed “Autism Spectrum Disorder,” which sparked much debate among the Asperger’s community.
While criteria specific to bipolar disorder and those diagnosed with this disease may have been benefitted from the DSM-V, many categories of illnesses are still under continuous debate. Re-wording, rewriting, and recombining signs and symptoms of disorders affect not only the psychologists who must be familiar with diagnostic criteria — they also affect the patients whose identities are often times tied quite closely with a disorder they have come to embrace as their “own.” Unfortunately, no system is without its flaws, and this fact speaks to the current debates facing psychological diagnoses. While psychologists continue to strive to make improvements to classifications of mental disorders, the interests of the ones who are actually suffering with the mental disorders must be balanced with the need for better classification systems and criteria.
References:
McLeod, S. A. (2011). What is psychology?. Retrieved October 9, 2017, from www.simplypsychology.org/whatispsychology.html
American Psychiatric Association (2017). DSM History. Retrieved October 1, 2017, from https://www.psychiatry.org/psychiatrists/practice/dsm/history-of-the-dsm
Whitbourne, S. K. (2013, May 4). What the DSM-5 Changes Mean for You. Retrieved October 1, 2017, from https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/fulfillment-any-age/201305/what-the-dsm-5-changes-mean-you
Nauert, R. (2017). New Evidence-Based Diagnostic System Sees Shades of Gray. Psych Central. Retrieved on October 1, 2017, from https://psychcentral.com/news/2017/03/27/new-evidence-based-diagnostic-system-sees-shades-of-gray/118235.html
Grohol, J. (2013). DSM-5 Changes: Bipolar & Related Disorders. Psych Central. Retrieved on October 9, 2017, from https://pro.psychcentral.com/dsm-5-changes-bipolar-related-disorders/004312.html
Ketter, T.A. Solving clinical challenges in bipolar disorder. Presentation at: Psych Congress; September 16–19, 2017; New Orleans, LA.
McCarter, M.M. (2015, April 30). Mental Illness And Identity: Would I Shed My Bipolar Disorder Skin? Retrieved on October 9, 2017, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/melissa-miles-mccarter/mental-illness-and-identi_b_7176674.html
Berrington, L. (2011, May 21). Asperger’s Removed from the DSM: How Will It Affect Autism Patients? Retrieved on October 1, 2017, from https://www.thedailybeast.com/aspergers-removed-from-the-dsm-how-will-it-affect-autism-patients
