[Science, Psychiatry, and the DSM].

[Science, Psychiatry, and the DSM]. Turk Psikiyatri Derg. 2013;24(3):202-12 Authors: Atbaşoğlu EC, Gülöksüz S Abstract The upcoming publication of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition (DSM-5), provides an opportunity to revisit the seldom-addressed methodological issues in contemporary psychiatry. We think that DSM widely determines the scientific and clinical orientation of the discipline, and therefore provides a good vantage point to critique the current psychiatric methodology. The main scientific problem is a perseverative attempt at validating descriptively defined disorders that are standardized and simplified to achieve diagnostic reliability. Lack of a single psychiatric phenomenon that is valid, i.e. natural, for initiating any reduction limits research to inductive-probabilistic methods, basically correlational analyses. Furthermore, reduction in psychiatry is typically directed at basic sciences, neglecting general medical diagnoses as possible intermediary correlates. The subcategory "Due to a General Medical Condition" is elusive, and the biopsychosocial approach does no more than strengthen the brain-disease illusion surrounding DSM definitions by justifying psychiatry as a branch of medicine while failing to stipulate detailed medical assessment and discouraging psychopathology-based clinical reasoning. It is therefore no surprise that, although our understanding of the neural basis and ...
Source: Turkish Journal of Psychiatry - Category: Psychiatry Authors: Tags: Turk Psikiyatri Derg Source Type: research