Examine social factors to explain rise in diagnoses of mental disorders
Their conclusions, which appear in the latest issue of the journa l Health Affairs , comes ahead of the May release of the American Psychiatric Association's Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5), a comprehensive guide that sets the classification, diagnosis, and treatment of mental disorders across the United States and the world. The study included researchers from New York University, Columbia University, the University of California, Berkeley, and Rutgers University. In their analysis and commentary, the authors argue that the forthcoming DSM-5, which is used by all psychiatrists, psychologists, and mental health workers in the U.S., has missed crucial population-level and social determinants of mental health disorders and their diagnosis. As a result, the DSM may be mischaracterizing the rates of certain afflictions. "If we are to believe current reports, there are 12 times more children with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADH...