The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, which provides psychiatrists with standard criteria for classifying mental illness, and which provides laymen with an endless source of anxiety, is getting it’s first major revision in 20 years. The DSM-5 will finally be released on May 22. According to the Washington Post, no one has read the entire thing yet, but it’s already generating a fair amount of controversy for what it’s omitting, adding, continuing to include, or regrouping.
A few major changes in the DSM-5:
–Compulsive hoarding has been added as a symptom of obsessive compulsive disorder.
–Gender identity disorder has been renamed “gender dysphoria,” despite the transgender community and their allies’ push for it’s exclusion.
–Histrionic personality disorder, whose sufferers use their physical appearance to draw attention to themselves, has been removed.
–Asperger’s syndrome has lost status as a disorder unto itself, and has been grouped in with autism spectrum disorders.
–ADHD diagnosis has been modified to reflect difference in adults and children who suffer from the disorder.
-The term “mental retardation” has been replaced with “intellectual disability.”
For more, read the excellent article in the Washington Post.
