The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) is the billing bible of psychiatry, listing every so-called mental or behavioral problem for which diagnosis and treatment can be reimbursed by insurance. There are 374 entries in edition four (DSM-IV), including such “mental illnesses” as “Expressive Language Disorder,” “Nicotine Dependence,” and “Caffeine-Induced Sleep Disorder.”
The scientific validity of the DSM has come under increasing attack from medical professionals and scientific experts, calling it junk science. Now the psychiatric industry wants to revise it, adding more fraudulent mental disorders to produce a fifth edition, DSM-V.
Former American Psychiatric Association (APA) president Nada Stotland stated, “We are in the midst of a revolution caused by public and legislative concern about the influence of the for-profit sector…” Part of that public pressure for the APA to disclose its conflicts of interest with pharmaceutical companies was driven by Lisa Cosgrove Ph.D. et al‘s study of DSM-IV and DSM-IV-TR committee members, which found that of the 170 members, 56% had one or more financial associations with companies in the pharmaceutical industry. Pharma’s psychotropic drug profits have soared commensurately with the increasing numbers of disorders voted into successive editions of the DSM.
Of the 137 DSM-V panel members who have posted disclosure statements, 56% have reported industry ties – no improvement over the percent of DSM-IV members.
The APA should sever all ties to pharmaceutical company interests. The US Senate Finance Committee has investigated at least a dozen APA psychiatrists over their undisclosed financial ties to drug companies.
For more information about psychiatric conflicts of interest visit www.PsychConflicts.org.
Click here for more information about the DSM and its various editions.
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