Patient advocacy and DSM-5. Editorial Article uri icon

Overview

abstract

  • The revision of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) provides a useful opportunity to revisit debates about the nature of psychiatric classification. An important debate concerns the involvement of mental health consumers in revisions of the classification. One perspective argues that psychiatric classification is a scientific process undertaken by scientific experts and that including consumers in the revision process is merely pandering to political correctness. A contrasting perspective is that psychiatric classification is a process driven by a range of different values and that the involvement of patients and patient advocates would enhance this process. Here we draw on our experiences with input from the public during the deliberations of the Obsessive Compulsive-Spectrum Disorders subworkgroup of DSM-5, to help make the argument that psychiatric classification does require reasoned debate on a range of different facts and values, and that it is appropriate for scientist experts to review their nosological recommendations in the light of rigorous consideration of patient experience and feedback.

publication date

  • May 17, 2013

Research

keywords

  • Mental Disorders
  • Patient Advocacy
  • Psychiatry

Identity

PubMed Central ID

  • PMC3660192

Scopus Document Identifier

  • 84877798192

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

  • 10.3109/09638237.2010.492484

PubMed ID

  • 23683696

Additional Document Info

volume

  • 11