The DSM fails to account for co-diagnosis or “multi-disorders”
If a loved one has obsessive-compulsive disorder, they’re likely to struggle with other anxiety disorders as well. Depression co-occurs with anxiety 60 percent of the time. All this is unexplained by the DSM. The only way to account for high rates of comorbidity or “co-diagnosis” is that many disorders are driven by the same underlying or Bill BIG word ….(trans-diagnostic) mechanisms. Rumination, or “stewing” for example, is a major driver for both depression and anxiety — that’s why they are so often seen together. Though rumination may focus on different things (e.g., personal failures in depression vs. future catastrophes in anxiety) it is a required target of treatment across both diagnoses.
In light of its failures, one might reasonably ask: why a new DSM? In truth, this fifth edition is just moving a few deck chairs on a sinking ship…..seriously! Dumping the multi-diagnosis system and Asperger’s disorder while adding binge eating, hoarding, and excoriation disorder (skin picking) has brought us no closer to a classification system that explains what’s wrong and guides evidence-based treatment decisions. Soon we’ll need to finish what the NIMH started — lower the lid, hammer it down, and bury the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders.
Natural approaches such and Qsciences and Q96 have more positive clinical science for brain/mood disorders than Pfizer and Lilly combined. 14 years of success buried under Prozac dollars is a pathetic reality of our drug culture. www.qsciencesinfo.com for a wake-up call and www.fixyourmood.com to remedy the situation. Email williamsickert@sbcglobal.com for the free report and clinical synopsis. The aforementioned paragraphs must stop; A hard pill to swallow?
Bill Sickert 