[DSM-5: the definitive inclusion of psychiatry in medicine?]

Rev Med Chil. 2019 Apr;147(4):475-479. doi: 10.4067/S0034-98872019000400475.
[Article in Spanish]

Abstract

DSM-5 is a significant factor in promoting the "remedicalization" of psychiatry as the focus of psychiatric knowledge, developed by the evidence-based medicine movement, shifted from the clinically-based biopsychosocial model to a research-based medical model. DSM-5 purposes are 1]clinical: diagnosis, prevention, early identification, management, outcome, assessment of improvement; 2] clinical research: etiology, course, effective treatments, cost-effective treatments, reliability and validity and utility of diagnosis; 3] a worldwide common language of diagnostic criteria used by mental health professionals; and 4] to improve communication with users of services, caregivers, and society in general. In the absence of a "gold standard" there are two basic questions still without answers 1] what kind of entities are psychiatric disorders?; and 2] How to integrate the multiple explanatory perspectives of psychiatric illness?.

MeSH terms

  • Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders*
  • Humans
  • Mental Disorders / diagnosis*
  • Psychiatry / standards