Mental illness affects one in four adults, which should make The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) one of the most well-thumbed medical texts in the world. The handbook, produced by the American Psychiatric Association (APA), lists symptoms for all known conditions and aims to steer psychiatrists, doctors and others towards a correct diagnosis. But in a field that struggles to connect people's inner experiences to measurable changes in their brains and bodies, the DSM is a lightning rod for criticism. It does not delve into the possible causes of mental illness, for example, or acknowledge that sociocultural and environmental factors could be important. Last week, the APA responded to that criticism by publishing a series of articles in The American Journal of Psychiatry, describing the strategy for the future of the DSM. It remains unclear when a new version will supersede the current DSM-5, released in 2013. 'We want to know how to continue to raise the...
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