DSM IV (was Re: Third Day Resurrection)

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PATRICK

Having worked closely, for several years, with schizophrenic patients in a
state-run mental health facility, it has become pretty obvious to me that
the NT's uses of OT "prophecy" are nothing more than what is known to
modern psychiatry as "delusions of reference."
[snip]

RICHARD
Thank you for your excellent and incisive post Patrick. This is one of the
most informative of the "science v religion" discourses I have read in a
long time.

May I be so bold to ask - what other research have you undertaken (or are
familiar with) in this discipline? What else can you tell us about the
neuroscience of religious beliefs?

Sorry for being dense - what is your "DSM IV" reference and where can I
access it?

STEVE CR

>From 'Psychology' by Wade and Tavris (p.557):


"In theory, diagnostic categories must meet a set of solid scientific
criteria to
be included in the "bible" of psychological and psychiatric diagnosis, the
Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM), which is
published by the American Psychiatric Association. The first edition of the
DSM, in 1952, was only 128 pages long and listed a few types of mental
"illness." The second edition, the DSM-II, appeared in 1968; it too was
short and contained brief
descriptions of organic brain disorders, severe mental disorders, and
personality problems. The third edition, DSM-III, published in 1980, began
to include normal difficulties (such as tobacco dependence, marital
conflicts, and sexual problems) along with serious disorders such as
schizophrenia. The revised
third edition, DSM-III-R, in 1987, was 567 pages long and listed more than
200
kinds of mental disorder. The fattest edition yet, the DSM-IV, published in
1994, is nearly 900 pages long and contains more than 300 mental disorders.
    The primary aim of the DSM is descriptive: to provide clear criteria of
diagnostic categories, so that clinicians and researchers can agree on the
disorders they are talking about, study them, and treat them. (For a list
of its major categories, see Table 15.1.) The DSM makes few assumptions
about the causes of the disorders it describes; in many cases, the causes
are not known. Each disorder is identified by its behavioural signs. Where
possible, information is also provided about typical age of onset,
predisposing factors, course of the disorder, prevalence (rare or common),
sex ratio of those affected, and cultural issues that might affect
diagnosis. The DSM also classifies each disorder on five axes, or factors:

-The primary diagnosis of the problem, such as depression.
-Ingrained aspects of the individual's personality that are likely to
affect the patients behavior and ability to be treated, such as narcissism
or dependency.
-General medical conditions that are relevant to the disorder, such as
respiratory or digestive problems.
-"Psychosocial and environmental problems" that can make the disorder
worse, such as, job and housing troubles or loss of a support group.
-A global assessment of the patient's overall level of functioning in work,
relationships, and leisure time. This factor indicates whether the problem
is of recent origin or of long duration, and how incapacitating it is.

The DSM has had an extraordinary impact worldwide. It has standardized
categories of what is, and what is not, a mental disorder. Its categories
and terminology have become the common language of most clinicians and
virtually all textbooks in psychiatry and psychology base their discussions
of mental disorders on the DSM. Insurance companies require clinicians to
assign their patients the appropriate DSM code number of the diagnosed
disorder, which puts pressure on compilers of the manual to add more and
refinements so that physicians and psychologists will be compensated..."

Wade and Tavris go on to list some criticisms concerning the general
problems of diagnosis and of the DSM in particular.

Steve Carson-Rowland
Brisbane, Australia
(Witty or incisive quote pending)

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