I suppose you do have to diagnose people, including children, with something before you you can get them hooked on whatever the Pharma company drug du jour is.

Revision to the bible of psychiatry, DSM, could introduce new mental disorders

Children who throw too many tantrums could be diagnosed with “temper straight-jacket1dysregulation with dysphoria.” Teenagers who are particularly eccentric might be candidates for treatment for “psychosis risk syndrome.” Men who are just way too interested in sex face being labeled as suffering from “hypersexual disorder.”

These are among dozens of proposals being unveiled Wednesday by the American Psychiatric Association in the first complete revision since 1994 of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, or “DSM” — the massive tome that has served as the bible for modern psychiatry for more than half a century…

The proposals will be debated in an intense process over the next two years, with potentially billions of dollars at stake for pharmaceutical companies, insurance companies, government health plans, doctors, researchers and patient advocacy groups.

But perhaps more important, the outcome will help shape which emotions, behaviors, thoughts and personality traits society considers part of the natural spectrum of the human persona and which are considered pathological, requiring treatment and possibly even criminal punishment.

“By massively pathologizing people under these categories, you tend to put them on an automatic path to medication, even if they are experiencing normal distress,” said Jerome C. Wakefield, a professor of social work and psychiatry at New York University.

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21 Comments | Leave a comment
  1. trevy says:

    My 6 year old son, Hunter, is autistic. He suffers from a REAL condition! So why in the world would someone want to MAKE UP a condition!

    • sandyl says:

      I too have a child with both physical and mental disabilities, but unfortunately many people would, and do, MAKE UP a condition—because of the money! Always follow the money.

      Here are just some of the reasons as to why….IMHO…

      More tax dollar programs, more state dollars, more money for school districts, more excuses for dumbing down our children (they’re handicapped don’t you know), more reasons for families not to be responsible for their children’s upbringing. “Oh I need public assistance because it isn’t my fault my child is uncontrollable, he/she has a syndrome.” More reasons for gov’t-run healthcare because these people “slip through the cracks.” More union-ran law enforcement needed to protect us from all these people with conditions. More reason for new big PHARMA drugs (as Tammy points out). More healthcare professionals needed for these syndromes/conditions. Can you say SEIU?

      Again, why? To move us more and more dependent upon our government, from cradle to grave, to save us from the imperfect creatures that we are.

      • naga5 says:

        i’m a PT in the school system. absolutely follow the money.
        rick

      • Slimfemme says:

        AMEN! I couln’t have said it better. Particularly your last point. Make people dependent on government, keep them as medicated and as passive as possible. Recall from history what the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany did to people deemed “mentally inferior” With the Soviet Union, psychiatry was used to destroy dissidents. Why on earth would anyone criticize the USSR, the workers paradise. Where everybody is happy and free.

      • cmoore324 says:

        Sandy:
        You’re right. My Dad was a judge in the Bureau of Hearings and Appeals. He heard Social Security cases all day. They trained him with the DSM, and I got some of his training materials when he died. He would tell stories of the peeps who would try to fool the system and the questions they would ask to try and trick them into false testimony. Now, I’m afraid it’s possible that they don’t do that anymore, and the DSM adjustments are merely an attempt to allow more fraud in the system.

        I also know people whose girlfriends are on the dole, when they are perfectly capable of getting their crap together and getting a job, if they would get off the vodka. And a former union member is stricken with MS and it took him 5 years to get a hearing before he got his SS. The fraud clogs the system and pushes out people in real need.

        However, I don’t believe in public assistance in anything, so the whole mess makes my head hurt.

    • bjohnson73 says:

      trevy, I agree with sandyl on this one. No one is saying that your son doesn’t suffer from a real condition, and the pharmaceutical companies need to work on medications to help people with real conditions. The problem is it’s not all that profitable. You see, those with real conditions are a small minority. However, if the psychiatric community and the pharmaceutical industry can convince people that every little problem in their life is due to a mental illness, they can sell LOTS of medication and make LOTS of money.

      ADD is a good example. I know for a fact that many children are diagnosed and medicated for ADD when they don’t really have ADD. They’re just KIDS! Many would do fine just by getting more physical activity (if only the schools would stop eliminating PE and recess) and being given academic activities that keep them interested. Many labeled as ADD are just a bit hyperactive and are often too smart for the school work and get bored. The easy thing is to medicate a child rather than deal with the real issues-and big pharma is more than happy to oblige the lazy parents, teachers and psychologists/psychiatrists.

      Now it’s being extended to temper tantrums. What ever happened to a butt whipping? When I was a kid, if I threw a tantrum, I got spanked. That tended to end the tantrum and prevent reoccurrence. I believe spanking should be used as a last resort after other parenting methods have been tried, but time outs don’t always work and medication just creates little zombies.

      At some point, we as a society need to figure out why in the last 20 years we have had such a large increase in the number of medicated children and adults out there. It’s funny how humans made it for thousands of years without all this crap. Either we are having a huge surge in mental illness, or big pharma is trying to convince use that we’re sick to make more money. I tend to believe the latter.

      I also don’t discount government involvement to control and sedate the population. Now that Barry’s in charge, I can see a gradual move towards diagnosing as mentally ill and medicating his most vocal critics. Watch out Tammy! Lol, that may be a bit too paranoid of a theory, but the government may be allowing this because they know they can use it to their advantage at some point…

  2. CO2aintpoison says:

    Um…when I threw a temper tantrum or was disobedient – I got “the switch”. Not just an ordinary switch, I had to go pick it – and it better be the right switch or someone ELSE would pick the switch. We had a lot of thorny shrubs around the house when I grew up…….. No meds for me.

    • sandyl says:

      Maybe we should start up a new movement with a slogan like… NO MORE MEDS, JUST SWITCH. just a thought. 🙂

    • bjohnson73 says:

      You know CO2, some things that our parents and grandparents did would get us locked up today. The switch might be a good example of that, and we probably shouldn’t bring that back. Nor should we bring back the paddle or belt. However, when time out and other techniques fail, I see no problem with a few swift swats on the rear end. There’s no reason an adult can’t spank child on the rear end with their hand hard enough to get their attention and stop misbehavior. It’s a tool that should be used sparingly, but can be highly effective.

      I do wonder however, when parents are going to stop letting video games, the computer/internet and television raise their children. I don’t know about you, but when I was a kid I didn’t have any of those things in my room. My bedroom was for sleeping and for playing on rainy days only. I wasn’t allowed to play video games and I was kicked outside to play when the weather permitted. No sitting in front of a televison for hours. No wonder the kids today are going bonkers…

    • trevy says:

      One of the most frightening sounds in the world is the sound of a belt clearing beltloops!

      • CO2aintpoison says:

        Trevy – yep, heard that sound a time or two also, followed by the SNAP. BJohnson – when I was a kid, there were no video games. We had a small b/w picture box which we could watch for no more than an hour a day (I do remember sneaking downstairs to watch The Tonight Show a bit later in my youth however!). We didn’t have cable so we only could watch ABC, CBS and NBC. Once my brother was old enough to get a job HE paid for cable. Man, that was like the greatest thing ever! Lots of bike riding, pick up games of baseball – that sorta thing. That’s one thing that cracks me up about the Wii. Why do you have to hold a tool to jog. Just jog already! Sandyl – love the slogan!

  3. VinceP1974 says:

    Can they invent US Debt Increase Stress Syndrome? I swear I’m suffering from that.

    • c4400 says:

      Absolutely. US Debt Increase Stress Syndrome. Done and cataloged. And here’s your ‘medicine’– *pours a purple liquid into your drink coming from a flask with an O symbol on it* There, there… you’ll be alright soon.. don’t you worry about that.. Daddy Govt will take care of everything.. you just drift away into bliss.

    • sandyl says:

      There are a lot of us suffering from that.

      But the conundrum is that the treatment/cure for that syndrome would increase the debt, thereby increasing our suffering, thereby increasing the need for more treatment, increasing more debt…….

  4. RuBegonia says:

    Canine training 101 = train the human. Much sympathy for caring parents who feel the pain of their children with disabilities [admiration to you trevy & sandyl]. In other cases it is the sins of the father [and mother] that deserve the scrutiny.A rose by any other name is still a rose. Sticks and stones may break my bones…etc. Medical labels are necessary for coding and reimbursement purposes. As with any bureaucratic system – watchdogs must be assigned to “follow the money” as naga5 points out. Speaking of points, do I have one? Time to shut my dog nozzle and think about it some more. I think I smell a squirrel…..off in another direction……

  5. bakedflounder says:

    Kids that throw too many tantrums are under-disciplined, spoiled and need the pill called “Wallop”.

  6. outlicioustv says:

    What they don’t seem to mention is that requiring a diagnosis for treatment is mainly because insurance companies will not cover treatment without a diagnosis.

    For example, when I visit the doctor’s for my yearly physical, the visit diagnosis is “Yearly Health Assessment”. If that field if left blank, the insurance company will not pay. If someone has a misbehaving kid and has failed at correcting the problem, they may need to seek treatment so therefore a visit diagnosis is needed. Just because the diagnosis of “temper tantrums” is issued on the child, it may actually be the parent that receives the bulk of the therapy.

  7. ashleymatt says:

    This is a substitute for parenting. Parents of “ADD” kids are those who got pregnant unexpectedly and/or just think having a child is like having a pet: all you have to do is feed, bath, and hug it when you feel like it. The parents are ignorant and have no idea how to run their own lives, much less how to implement a philosophy for helping a child develop into an independent, responsible adult. It’s much easier to have them take a pill. And then they wonder why so many youths start popping pills for fun; they are already used to taking them!

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