Mental Disorders

The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) is the reference source mental health professionals and physicians use to diagnose mental disorders. The most recent edition, the DSM-5, was released in 2013. Since its inception, the DSM has been growing in size. According to Week 1’s Learning Resource, History of Mental Illness, the number of diagnosable disorders has tripled since the first publication in 1952 (Farreras, 2020). The DSM-5 added approximately 10 percent new diagnostic categories from the DSM-IV.

Contemplate these points:

· the diagnosis of hording was added to the DSM-5, elevating it from a subtype of obsessive-compulsive disorder.

· caffeine use disorder and Internet gaming disorder were added to the DSM-5, placed in a special section reserved for disorders in need of further study

· mental health diagnostic awareness is growing: across social media, prescription drug advertising, and TV programming ( Dexter – Antisocial Personality Disorder with comorbidity in Obsessive Compulsive Disorder; Homeland – Bipolar)

Your Task

1. Main Entry: Provide your response to the following questions. Support your response through the synthesis of concepts from the week’s readings and learning resources.

a. What does the ever-expanding list of diagnostic categories within the DSM mean to you, to me, your neighbor, to the fellow in the next town? Is the expansion of what is considered diagnostically “mentally disordered” within the DSM something we should be tracking? Why or why not?

b. Are practitioners’ practical approaches/perspectives on psychological disorders influencing their acceptance or rejection of diagnostic labels within the DSM-5?

c. What is the relevance / need for diagnostic labels? Is it naïve to reject the use of diagnostic labels?

2. Peer Responses: Post Constructive Peer Feedback. In addition to posting your main entry, respond to at least TWO (2) of your classmates’ entries. In 3 or more sentences, provide constructive feedback. What did you find interesting? Do you have additional thoughts? Share them. When providing your feedback present the logic behind it.

Farreras, I. G. (2020). History of mental illness. In R. Biswas-Diener & E. Diener (Eds), Noba textbook series: Psychology. Campaign, IL: DEF publishers. Retrieved from http://noba.to/65w3s7ex

CLASSMATE POST 1

a. What does the ever-expanding list of diagnostic categories within the DSM mean to you, to me, your neighbor, to the fellow in the next town? Is the expansion of what is considered diagnostically “mentally disordered” within the DSM something we should be tracking? Why or why not?

With the list of diagnostic categories expanding within the DSM, we ca be sure that such updates like this need to be announced in a public forum. With this in mind, researchers need to carefully construct a basis for new categories in order to include them in the DSM. I believe it is in the public’s best interest to be updated with any inclusions as it pertains to the DSM.

b. Are practitioners’ practical approaches/perspectives on psychological disorders influencing their acceptance or rejection of diagnostic labels within the DSM-5?

It is hard to answer on what practitioners accept or reject due to the severity of psychological disorders being studied or if any influence was made based on the diagnostic labels within the DSM-5. However, if one should assume a disorder influence a practitioner’s acceptance, it would most likely be based off of what society accepts. Not many researchers in this field want to be a target of canceled culture nowadays based off their opinions and beliefs.

c. What is the relevance / need for diagnostic labels? Is it naïve to reject the use of diagnostic labels?

It is truly important to understand what a disorder is and to label it appropriately in order to provide correct treatment to patients. Too many times patients have been misdiagnosed due to the similarities of symptoms with identical disorder labels. A good example of this would be prior service military members seeking help at a Veteran Affairs hospital. Many come in for numerous reasons; the most common is trauma of the mind. When dealing with patients like these, sensitivity is highly encouraged and this is where correct labeling of disorders play a heavy toll. If misdiagnosed due to similarities in disorders being labeled, wrong treatment and medication can worsen symptoms in patients such as veterans.