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Somewhat less than half of those (or five percent of the total membership) voted to adopt the DSM. Members of the association voted on the list of disorders to be included about ten percent of the membership was asked to approve a draft of the initial DSM. The first edition of the DSM, published in 1952 by the American Psychiatric Association, described 107 mental illnesses. The goal was to create precise categories, but how precise was the science behind their development?
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A Note About the DSM Categories of DepressionĪs psychiatry became a field of medicine, it became necessary to have clear diagnostic categories so that professionals could discuss and research the difficulties of patients with mental illness. He or she is seeking to match the things you’ve told her to one of the lists of symptoms in the book in order to arrive at a diagnosis and formulate an approach to your treatment. After your session, the psychiatrist may consult the DSM-V, that big, gray book that sits behind her (or him) on the bookshelf. But that’s the way it’s always been done, so you go along with the program. You start to wonder, “What is a psychiatric diagnosis?” You may continue to wonder how a psychiatrist can make a diagnosis based only on a conversation rather than from tests results or a physical exam. The psychiatrist writes down these symptoms and interviews you to get the information he or she needs to make a diagnosis. But you forge ahead bravely and describe to the psychiatrist how you feel. The doctor sits down, offers you a seat, and encourages you to describe your symptoms: “So, what brings you in today?” You may feel anxious because you’re not sure where to begin. Instead, there are two chairs and a box of tissues.Ĭlearly, this is not going to be a standard medical exam, despite the fact that psychiatrists are doctors who go to four years of medical school after college, followed by at least four years of special training in psychiatry. There are no stethoscopes, blood pressure cuffs, or other instruments that doctors use to take measurements of patients. One of the first things you notice when you enter the psychiatrist’s office is that it’s not a familiar medical office.
FUNCTIONAL DEPRESSION PROFESSIONAL
For whatever reason-because you feel depressed, a family member has urged you, or your family physician has referred you-you’ve made the decision to seek professional treatment. In fact, let’s imagine that you are stepping into the office. Let’s consider what happens when the typical patient visits a psychiatrist. A Typical Traditional Psychiatric Evaluation I have listened to patients suffering from depression for more than thirty years, and it is very clear to me that our current treatments are not enough. Most of us do not need numbers to know that depression is a widespread problem that is difficult to solve: we see the devastation in our lives and in the lives of family members and friends who have it. It is surprisingly common, affecting more than fifteen million people in the United States alone however, standard treatment for depression brings about a complete recovery or nearly complete elimination of symptoms in only thirty-three percent of patients, and in roughly seventy percent of those, depression happens again. Depression is a disabling illness that can strangle one’s life and spirit and severely reduce both psychological and physical well-being.