Outcry as grief lumped in with depression in the new lame Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders of the APA

Grief is set to be confused with depressive illness in new guidelines for mental disorders.

Outcry as grief lumped in with depression in the new lame Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders of the APA Art353gordon20parker300

That diagnosis is criticised as inappropriate by a leading psychiatrist and ''appalling'' by a well-known grief counsellor.

''There is a real risk of medicalising grief,'' Gordon Parker, a professor of psychiatry at the University of NSW, said. ''The concern is that health practitioners would be encouraged to reach for the prescription pad'' to give anti-depressants to people who were grieving normally, he said.

The new Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders of the American Psychiatric Association, known as the DSM-5, puts too much focus on the similarities between major depression and grief and not enough on the important differences between them, Professor Parker said.
Advertisement

It was an ''appalling state of affairs'' that the manual seemed to reflect a widespread desire to suppress or deny powerful, natural human emotions and ''keep everything neat and tidy'', author and counsellor Petrea King said.

http://www.smh.com.au/national/health/outcry-as-grief-lumped-in-with-depression-20130403-2h787.html

Outcry as grief lumped in with depression in the new lame Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders of the APA

Outcry as grief lumped in with depression in the new lame Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders of the APA

Anarcho-Capitalist Categorical Imperatives

AnCaps & Psychology, Edumbcation, Even IndoctriNation