Allen Frances with Suzy Chapman - opposition to DSM-5 SSD category

[Dx Revision Watch]

Good luck with your operation Suzy. I hope everything goes well for you and you recovery quickly.

Thank you, Esther. I should be discharged the same day but I am not supposed to use a computer, operate heavy machinery, use a power drill or sign legal documents until Saturday, so I guess those shelves that are still waiting to be put up will just have to wait...

 

[Esther12]

I'll send ineffectual good vibes. Even minor surgery can be draining, but can be used as a wonderful excuse for escaping DIY.

 

[Dx Revision Watch]

58 comments now in response to Allen Frances' commentary on the DSM-5 SSD category at:

http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog...2/mislabeling-medical-illness-mental-disorder

We'd like to pass 10,000 hits in the next few days.

Please, if you have the energy, more links on Twitter and Facebook and and all illness and patient advocacy platforms.

Thank you,

Suzy

 

[Dx Revision Watch]

A further commentary has been published on Psychology Today Blogs | DSM5 in Distress by Allen Frances, M.D. (also published on Huff Po) that mentions the SSD category:

One Last Chance For APA To Make DSM 5 Safer

[url]http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/dsm5-in-distress/201212/one-last-chance-apa-make-dsm-5-safer [/URL]

...Other wise there will likely be a buyer’s revolt.

Dr Frances writes:

"...Many respondents to my first blog noted that I had left out another DSM 5 change that deserved to be at, or near, the top of the list of its bad ideas. Suzy Chapman has eloquently summarized how the DSM 5 criteria set for Somatic Symptom Disorder is wildly over-inclusive and the harms that result.

"DSM 5 would turn a significant proportion of medically ill people into psychiatric patients- somewhere between about 15-25% depending on the disease. Most of the time, the diagnosis of mental disorder will be incorrect and harmful. Beyond the stigma and hurt, encouraging the quick and mistaken reflex that physical symptoms are really just psychiatric is a big mistake- leading both to missing the underlying medical cause and to overtreating the trumped up psychiatric problem.

"We are at the eleventh hour..."

Full commentary

There are now 60 comments on the Psychology Today version of the first SSD commentary. That commentary is also published on Huff Po. Please continue to circulate the Psychology Today link to all ME, CFS, FM platforms and other illness groups.

 

[Esther12]

Thanks Suzy. Pleased to see you're back to work okay. Good to see the word is being spread so effectively.

 

[Dx Revision Watch]

We want to see 10,000+ hits on Dr Frances' joint commentary by the weekend and 12,000 hits by the end of next week. Please keep Tweeting and Facebook posting on the SSD issue and referencing the commentary on blogs and media comment sections [1].

Some media coverage of DSM-5 is anticipated this coming week which will link to the joint commentary.

Further blog coverage of the SSD criteria issue:

http://ibsimpact.wordpress.com/2012...ysical-conditions-as-psychological-disorders/

IBS Impact

"Proposed DSM-5 Criteria May Unfairly Label Physical Conditions as Psychological Disorders"

"Recently in the IBS and chronic illness community, several professionals and self-advocates have begun expressing concern about proposed changes in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual for Mental Disorders, commonly known as the DSM...The DSM is revised periodically and the 5th edition is expected to be released in 2013. While there are many controversial proposed changes, one that has received relatively little attention in the mainstream media is particularly alarming in its potential implications for people with chronic illnesses, especially ones that are still scientifically poorly understood, like irritable bowel syndrome or commonly overlapping conditions like fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue syndrome and interstitial cystitis among others..."

-----------------

http://opbmed.blogspot.co.uk/2012/12/moving-in-wrong-direction.html

December 13, 2012

"Moving in the Wrong Direction"

Dr Tiffany Taft, Ph.D., Northwestern University

"...Rather than repeating what's in store in DSM 5, this article ( http://wp.me/pKrrB-29B ) provides an excellent summary of the proposed changes. It's really worth taking the time to read, whether you have diabetes, irritable bowel syndrome, lupus, or fibromyalgia. The bottom line is, regardless of the etiology of your chronic illness you are a candidate for the Somatic Symptom Disorder (SDD) diagnosis. If you're a parent caregiver, your reactions to your child's illness may be deemed pathological as well...

 

[Dx Revision Watch]

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-12-20/how-many-billions-a-year-will-the-dsm-5-cost-.html

How Many Billions a Year Will the DSM-5 Cost?


Illustration by Pete Gamlen

By Allen Frances Dec 20, 2012 11:30 PM GMT

Reference and link to the Psychology Today commentary within this Bloomberg article.

 

[Dx Revision Watch]

As many readers will be aware, over the past three years, I've been compiling submissions in the three DSM-5 stakeholder reviews on my site on these three pages:

DSM-5 SSD Work Group Submissions 2010
DSM-5 SSD Work Group Submissions 2011
DSM-5 SSD Work Group Submissions 2012

Today, the submission of Mike Munoz on behalf of RMCFA has come to my attention and I have added a link for the PDF to the page for the 2012 stakeholder review and comment period:

http://www.rmcfa.org/f/DSM-5_comment_6-14-2012.pdf

June 14, 2012

Michael Munoz
Executive Director
RMCFA

 

[Dx Revision Watch]

May be reposted

From Suzy Chapman for http://dxrevisionwatch.com

December 30, 2012


The clock is ticking for DSM-5's Somatic Symptom Disorder


Action required today on time sensitive issue:

The texts for DSM-5 are in the process of being finalized and the SSD Work Group is being asked to review their proposed criteria for SSD. This requires intense public pressure for 11th hour changes and I need your help, today.

If you haven't already done so, please click on the link to my joint commentary with Allen Frances, M.D., on the perils of the American Psychiatric Association's DSM-5 category "Somatic Symptom Disorder" on his blog at Psychology Today.

For three years, Dr Frances has been at the forefront of public criticism of many of the APA’s controversial proposals for new disorders for DSM-5 and for the lowering of thresholds for existing disorders.

Dr Frances had chaired the Task Force for DSM-IV, was chair of Department of Psychiatry at Duke and is currently professor emeritus, Duke. He is strongly opposing the SSD criteria.

Visiting his blog and leaving a comment on our post (however brief) will help demonstrate to the DSM-5 SSD Work Group and Task Force the level of concern for this new category.

SSD is going to hurt all patient groups, but especially the so-called "Functional somatic syndromes" - IBS + SSD; CFS + SSD; FM + SSD but also MS + SSD; cancer + SSD; coronary disease + SSD; diabetes + SSD...because an additional mental health dx of SSD can be applied to all illnesses and conditions.

In the DSM-5 field trials, 26% of the "functional somatic" study group were coded with SSD; 15% of the "diagnosed illness" group (cancer and coronary disease patients) and 7% of the "healthy" control group met the criteria for an additional diagnosis of SSD.

Professor Simon Wessely, has presented at DSM-5 symposia and Professors Michael Sharpe and Francis Creed are members of the DSM-5 Work Group for "Somatic Symptom Disorders."

What goes through to DSM-5 will likely influence the revision of ICD-10 to ICD-11. Already Prof Francis Creed, who advises the ICD-11 working group for the revision of the "Somatoform Disorders," is pushing "Bodily Distress Disorder" to replace the ICD-10 "Somatoform Disorders." BDD is said to encompass the DSM-5 "Somatic Symptom Disorder" construct.

There isn't very much time left before the DSM-5 texts are finalized for the publishers.

Please visit Dr Frances' post, today, leave a comment and then repost this link on other platforms and forward to all your contacts:

http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/dsm5-in-distress/201212/mislabeling-medical-illness-mental-disorder/
--------------------

Further blog commentary on the SSD criteria issue and in response to my joint commentary with Dr Frances:

http://ibsimpact.wordpress.com/2012...ysical-conditions-as-psychological-disorders/

http://opbmed.blogspot.co.uk/2012/12/moving-in-wrong-direction.html

http://www.reportingonhealth.org/2012/12/19/dsm-5-%E2%80%93-misdiagnosing-or-mislabeling-medical-diseases

https://my.psychologytoday.com/blog...llnesses-may-soon-be-labeled-mental-disorders


Suzy Chapman
_____________________

http://dxrevisionwatch.com
http://twitter.com/dxrevisionwatch
http://meagenda.wordpress.com
http://www.facebook.com/MEagenda

 

[Dx Revision Watch]

Editing glitch.

I can't get an RT uploader to display in any browser this morning, so here is just the link to Allen Frances' follow-up to our joint commentary on the SSD criteria of December 8. Please Tweet and circulate widely on all plaftorms. We are particularly keen to reach platforms for patients with common chronic diseases and conditions - cancer, heart disease, diabetes, COPD, MS, RA; also Lyme disease, chemical injury and rare diseases, IBS and Fibromyalgia:


http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog...sm-5-refuses-correct-somatic-symptom-disorder

 

[Shell]

politics and money instead of medicine and science. And both politicians and so-called medics have long ago ditched any notion of the person with intrinsic dignity and rights.
Natual law has gone and most people with Phd or MD after their name couldn't tell the difference between a machine and a person, a natural law or a law of nature. They are all so soul-dead, it's little wonder people keep going on about the zombie apocylpse; we're living in it.

 

[biophile]

Article on the DSM-5:

On the Mental Catwalk: As Diagnostic Thresholds Are Lowered, Being Normal Ends Up Being as Difficult as Being a Supermodel, Philosopher Contends

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/01/130111092455.htm

 

[Sean]

From the article:

Paradoxically we are becoming less tolerant of deviations at the same time as many more of us are deemed to be deviants.

As many have noted over the centuries, without deviation from statistically 'normal' there is no progress.

Not to mention the eternal question of whether a given 'normal' is healthy or not.

 

[alex3619]

This could have very deep issues for democracy. As more people who are diagnosed as having a mental disorder, more may feel disempowered and less likely to be involved politically ... though this is only a concern, not a fact. Is this a case of "Shut up, you are crazy, leave decisions to your betters." ? I am not saying thats the intent, I am saying that might be the consequence.

Over-psychologization may well spell the death of organizations like the APA. In time we might react, as might the general medical community, and psychiatry may be forcibly revamped. Much of psychiatry does not deserve the status of being called science or evidence based. The standards applied in much of psychiatric research, particularly psychopsychiatry, are far weaker than the standards used in, for example, cardiology. So how come psychopsychiatry is treated as having similar privilenge to cardiology? Where is the science? Where is the objective data? Where is the reason?

If psychiatry, and in particular psychopsychiatry, continues to go down this path it may discredit itself, and potentially cause the entire discipline to implode. This is not going to happen immediately though, and until then many people will be harmed, and many of those are not even sick.

 

[alex3619]

From the article:

As many have noted over the centuries, without deviation from statistically 'normal' there is no progress.

Not to mention the eternal question of whether a given 'normal' is healthy or not.

JUST A MEANDERING RANT

If you want a society of normal, try an ant colony. However, even in such a colony there are worker ants who do not work but loaf around (though I prefer to think of it as inbuilt Standby for ants).

Visions of dystopia often describe us as reduced to drones. Deviance is a very wrong way to think about non-drones. Its about variation. Variation is crucial to give a population an adaptive response to unusual crises. There is always someone who has a different response, a different idea, and this gives society people who can create better solutions.

Back to the loafer ants, this is an evolutionary imperative, if you remove them the colony just makes more, iirc. These ants are not committed to any current project, so if something comes along they are free to react - hency my Standby comment.

There are names for standardized societies ... tyranny, dictatorships, feudalism, fascism, communism, and theocracy.

Psychopsychiatry is in danger of becoming a religion instead of being science-based. Its much of the way there. If such thinking pervasively effects society, then we may see society become more theocracy than democracy.

There was an old science fiction story about a sane man. He was the only one left who was not diagnosed as insane. Of course he was ostracized and distrusted, and in the new definition of sanity, defined by societal standards, he was insane. If everyone has a mental health problem, then this becomes the norm. Psychopsychiatry including DSM has diagnoses about people obsessing over health, and inventing delusionary illnesses. Yet its somehow acceptable to promote a growing view that many more people have mental illness than previously thought, and all without a shred of sound science or objective evidence. Just who is delusional?