DSM5 in Distress

The DSM's impact on mental health practice and research

by Allen Frances, M.D.

Female Sexual Dysfunction and Disease Mongering

DSM 5 will give drug companies running room to continue their disease mongering of female sexual disorders- hyping questionable DSM ills as a means of pushing pills. Read More

DSM 5 Confirms That Rape Is Crime, Not Mental Disorder

DSM-5 has rejected rape as a mental disorder. This should reduce the inaccurate use of psychiatric diagnosis to justify the longterm involuntary commitment of sexually violent predators who have already served their full prison sentence. Inappropriately using psychiatric diagnosis in the service of preventive detention is a slippery slope with disastrous consequences. Read More

The Power of Sexual Selection

Sexual selection has powerfully influenced psychology and psychology has powerfully influenced evolution. Read More

Who Was the Greatest Psychologist?

Darwin's evolutionary approach to human psychology is the foundation of all later developments. Read More

A New Blog Title and a New Mission: 'Saving Normal'

Now that DSM 5 is in press, my new mission is saving normal. Read More

Price Gouging: Why Will DSM-5 Cost $199 a Copy?

DSM-5 is pricing itself out of the market at $200 a copy. I explain the forces leading to this price gouging and why it won't work. Read More

Bad News: DSM 5 Refuses to Correct Somatic Symptom Disorder

DSM 5 will inappropriately label as mentally ill 1 in 6 people with cancer and heart disease; 1 in 4 with irritable bowel and fibromyalgia; and 1 in 14 who are not even medically ill. DSM 5 rejected the simple wording changes I suggested that would have helped correct this problem. Read More

Pragmatism In Psychiatric Diagnosis

This is a response to Dr Ghaemi's claim that DSM IV and DSM 5 both suffer from excessive pragmatism. Psychiatric diagnosis must be pragmatic. DSM 5 suffers from not being pragmatic enough. Read More

Gun Control Can't Work If Restricted to the Mentally Ill

Gun control for the mentally ill won't prevent our epidemic of mass murder. It's long past time to ban assault weapons for everyone. Politicians have a choice- protect our kids or protect the interests of NRA radical ideologues. Read More

Last Plea to DSM 5: Save Grief From the Drug Companies

DSM-5 wil confuse bereavement with depression, reducing the dignity of grief and subjecting grievers to unnecessary medication. Read More

2 Weeks Post Newtown- Gun Control, Mental Health, and Grief

There are three lessons from the latest in our epidemic of mass murders: 1) it is long past time to have a sane gun control policy that protects us from military-style firearms; 2) we need to provide better mental health care for the seriously ill; and, 3) grief is completely normal and should not be confused with clinical depression. Read More

One Last Chance For APA To Make DSM 5 Safer

The vigorous opposition to the American Psychiatric Association's approval of DSM-5 suggests that it will lack credibility and will not gain widespread approval. I suggest four ways that DSM-5 can be revised to make it less risky and more usable in clinical practice. Read More

Mislabeling Medical Illness As Mental Disorder

DSM-5 will add to the woes for the medically ill in two ways: 1) by encouraging a quick jump to the erroneous conclusion that someone's physical symptoms are 'all in the head'; and 2) by mislabeling as mental disorders what are really just the normal emotional reactions that people have in response to medical illness. Read More

DSM 5 Is Guide Not Bible—Ignore Its Ten Worst Changes

The ten worst suggestions that were recently approved for DSM-5 are summarized and the recommendation made that clinicians and the public not to use them at all or use them with great caution. Read More

Will the DSM-5 Reduce Rates of Autism?

The DSM-5 radical redefinition of autism will dramatically reduce the number of people who will qualify for the diagnosis. Read More

You Can't Turn A Sow's Ear Into A Silk Purse

The DSM-5 Field Tests produced historically low levels of diagnostic agreement because they were poorly designed and conducted incompetently. The DSM 5 leadership is attempting to lower accepted standards. In a misleading effort to justify controversial proposals that may cause grave harm. This further discredits DSM 5 and APA. Read More

DSM 5 Field Trials Discredit APA

The DSM-5 field trials came up with terrible results that are misleadingly presented in the American Journal of Psychiatry. This is more proof,if any were needed, that the American Psychiatric Association should lose control of the diagnostic system in psychiatry. Read More

Personalized Biological Testing In Psychiatry

Our current diagnostic system is based on fallible and subjective clinical judgments. Read More

The Military Can Do More to Prevent Suicides

The military is taking sensible steps to reduce its unacceptably high suicide rate but is not going far enough in reducing access to two methods commonly used by soldiers- privately held guns and caches of prescription drugs. Read More

Fairness Will Win The Debate And Win The Election

Barack Obama will win the debates and the election because our economic inequality has reached a tipping point that offends our inherent and hardwired sense of fairness. Read More

Don't Blame Everything On Psychology

David Brooks is again using pop psychology to defend bad social policy. Read More

The Epidemic of Suicide in the Military

Here are 10 ways the military can respond to the enormous increase in suicide, which is now twice as common as combat deaths. Read More

Fighting the Wrong War On Drugs

We are fighting a battle against illegal drug cartels we can't possibly win, while we have not yet begun the war against the dangers of prescription drug abuse that we couldn't possibly lose. Read More

Internet Addiction - The Next New Fad Diagnosis

Internet addiction is a fad diagnosis that needs to be stopped before it gains momentum. Read More

Mass Murderer Psychobabble Misses The Gun Policy Point

In his recent New York Times piece, David Brooks" provides a psychological analysis of mass murderers, concluding that: "The crucial point is that the dynamics are internal, not external. These killers are primarily the product of psychological derangements, not sociological ones." Read More

Mass Murders, Madness, and Gun Control

The US has averaged two episodes of mass murder a year for the past 15 years. And the odds are good that we will carry this sorry record forward forever into the future. Each tragedy provokes a predictable round of shock, grieving, soul searching, and finger pointing. Why would someone do something so crazy? Who missed what warning signs? Read More

Personalized Biological Testing in Psychiatry

At next year's meeting of The International College of Neuropsychopharmacology, the smartest people in psychiatric genetics will present their suggestions and report on progress in applying the techniques of personalized medicine as a whole new approach to psychiatric diagnosis. Read More

Two Who Resigned From DSM-5 Explain Why

Roel Verheul and John Livesley both felt compelled to resign from the DSM-5 Personality Disorders Work Group. Here is an email from them describing what went wrong in the preparation of this section: Read More

DSM-5 Continues To Ignore Critics

The petition to reform DSM-5 speaks with the powerful voice of more than fifty mental health associations. Perhaps more important to APA's publishing ambitions and budgetary needs, it represents a significant percentage of the potential customers who eventually will have to decide whether or not DSM-5 is worth buying and using. Read More

My Debate With The DSM 5 Chair

Recently, I voiced my concerns about DSM 5 in a Medscape interview with Dr Stephen Strakowski. DSM-5 Task Force Chair David Kupfer then entered the debate and provided his defense.

Here is my reply to Dr Kupfer: Read More