Physical Illnesses May Soon Be Labeled “Mental Disorders”

[Jules A]

One of my cousins works in mental health and does consulting for the DSM Manual in her area of specialty. There are preliminary manuscripts that circulate for review prior to publication, so it's possible the author of the Psychology Today article has read them already. That said, I know my cousin would never reach a conclusion regarding a mental health diagnosis until there had been a proper medical work-up for the physical symptoms involved. Nor would any other diligent professional.
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Its sort of like the health care changes, I'm waiting till they are actually fact before getting myself in a twist.

Thank you for adding that a competent, ethical professional will do a full work up prior to discounting complaints as the result of a mental health condition.

I would defend those physicians who are reluctant to diagnose MS unless someone has lesions on MRI. Although I know there are those few, especially with a family history, who have MS without lesions showing yet or at the time the MRI was performed but to me that is a integral part of the diagnostic criteria.

So although it might be frustrating and put off the inevitable diagnosis for someone who is convinced they have MS to me it is better to be prudent than throw around a MS diagnosis willy nilly.

[HellsBells1]

I think it is more important for a doctor who cannot "yet" find a reason for a person's physical sx, even after running several tests, is to just say, "Well, we don't understand yet what is going on with you, so let's see if there are some sx that we can treat, and wait and see what else might come up in the future to give us more clues."

This is a much better approach than seeing a clear MRI and saying, "Well, obviously you don't have MS (or fill in blank with other disease), so we will chalk it up to being in your head."

We all recognize that there are true hypochondriacs out there, but there is already a dx in DSM-IV and prior to cover those cases. This new "mental illness" of SSD is simply ridiculous, and will give bad doctors an easy out - until they get their pants sued off for missing a serious or life-threatening condition. Perhaps that possibility will help doctors to use this dx VERY carefully. Besides, the way it is worded, and the article covers this point as well, it leaves every person with a serious and diagnosed condition open to being labelled with having a mental condition as well, if they focus their attention on improving their illness, or worry about the progression of their illness, or wondering if their cancer will kill them, etc. etc.

The DSM for psychological dx purposes is quite the strange manual anyway - it used to classify homosexuality as a mental illness, and lots of other really strange mental illnesses to dx anyone that didn't conform to what society considered "normal."