“What caused my son to get sick?” I asked.
The doctor said he didn’t know.
“Will it happen again?
The doctor said he didn’t know. It could happen or it might not.
“Do you know what is wrong with him?”
The doctor said he wasn’t certain.
Welcome to the imprecise world of psychiatry.
On May 22, the American Psychiatric Association will release its new Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, the so-called Psychiatrists’ Bible, that is used in making a mental health diagnosis. From the moment the APA announced it was revising its DSM, the new edition has come under attack. Most of these early criticisms have been predictable and not especially startling — until April 29th.
That is when Dr. Thomas Insel, the director of the National Institute of Mental Health and a doctor whom I personally admire, published a “director’s blog” that dropped the equivalent of a nuclear bomb into the DSM debate.
Dr. Insel wrote: