Undisclosed financial conflicts of interest in DSM-5 (2024)

Re:Undisclosed financial conflicts of interest in DSM-5 (2024) by dotancohen on Wednesday August 27, 2025 @04:23AM (#45036856)

If the DSM merely described sets of symptoms and gave them names, I'd buy that. But by also mentioning (e.g. suggesting) specific treatments, the book is used as a prescription tool, not just a diagnostic tool.

  > But if you’re going to judge the book, judge it by how it presents itself

Quite so. I just as we judge people by their actions, not their words, I judge the DSM by how it's actual content is structured, not by its introductory quip.

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Re:Undisclosed financial conflicts of interest in DSM-5 (2024) by autoexec on Wednesday August 27, 2025 @05:03AM (#45037092)

Why shouldn't it include a bunch of treatments if they've been shown to be beneficial? How would it be better if people had to go to some other book and look up those same conditions using the names listed in the DSM in order to find out which treatments might be useful?

Doctors (at least the good ones) aren't usually going in blind and just doing whatever the DSM tell them to as if they were following a flowchart or checklist. The DSM (which I'm not even fully defending here, I personally it feel has all kinds of problems) is just a guide. It's not the only tool in a doctor's arsenal and they aren't obligated to follow it.

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Re:Undisclosed financial conflicts of interest in DSM-5 (2024) by dotancohen on Wednesday August 27, 2025 @12:14PM (#45041633)

  > Why shouldn't it include a bunch of treatments if they've been shown to be beneficial?

It most certainly should, I'm not saying it shouldn't. My argument is that, by suggesting specific treatments, the DSM is a prescription tool. Not merely a diagnostic tool.

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Re:Undisclosed financial conflicts of interest in DSM-5 (2024) by epgui on Wednesday August 27, 2025 @04:15PM (#45044605)

Oftentimes in psychiatry the treatments are just as important as anything else.

There’s a well-known concept of “diagnosis by treatment” because unfortunately that’s often the best we can do in practice.

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Re:Undisclosed financial conflicts of interest in DSM-5 (2024) by dotancohen on Thursday August 28, 2025 @07:25AM (#45050849)

I'm not disagreeing with anything you say, although I did not know the concept of diagnosis by treatment is actually formerly recognised. That is exactly why the DSM is a prescription tool, not merely a diagnostic tool as reading of the introductory text would have one believe.

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Re:Undisclosed financial conflicts of interest in DSM-5 (2024) by epgui on Thursday August 28, 2025 @06:06PM (#45057600)

I don't know that it's formally recognized, but it's a thing.

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