Cliff notes to psychiatry

Reports that the American Psychiatric Association is releasing a new version of the 'Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders' specifically geared for primary care physicians. How the book is organized by symptom and contains less of the difficult jargon contained in the original manual; Why this redesign is long overdue.

By PT Staff, published on March 01, 1995

MIND-BODY MEDICINE

THIS SPRING, AMERICA WILL MOVE ONE GIANT STEP CLOSER TO THE INTEGRATION OF MIND AND BODY IN MEDICAL PRACTICE. THE AMERICAN PSYCHIATRIC ASSOCIATION IS RELEASING A NEW VERSION OF THE DIAGNOSTIC AND STATISTICAL MANUAL OF MENTAL DISORDERS--THE PSYCHIATRIC DIAGNOSTIC BIBLE--FOR PRIMARY CARE PHYSICIANS.

Tailored to the way primary care physicians practice, the new manual--called DSM-IV-PC, for primary care--is organized by symptom, allowing people outside the mental health professions a logical portal to the psyche. By contrast, the standard psychiatric version is jargon laden and organized by what some consider highly arbitrary diagnostic categories. The insular language with occasional Freudian baggage has been sacrificed for the generalist--leaving the blueprint for a single, sensible manual for all.

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The redesign is long overdue. After all, statistics show that most visits to primary care doctors are for mental problems, and many bodily symptoms have a significant psychiatric component.

Not to mention, with the advent of managed care in health maintenance organizations, the primary care doc has become the gatekeeper of medical care. "Psychiatry is reaching out to primary care doctors so they can work together on mental health issues," says Laurie McQueen, the APA project coordinator for the new manual. "So primary care doctors can catch people with mental health problems early on, when they first enter the health care system."

The DSM-IV-PC may well be the first formal acknowledgment that people don't leave their minds at the door when they enter a doctor's office.