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Step into my parlor, and let me wave my diagnosticulator at you. OK, let me just consult the book. Ah! Just as I suspected. Since you yelled at that IRS agent during your audit, we know you suffer from temper dysregulation disorder with dysphoria. This is normally seen in children, and is what we used to call a temper tantrum. Actually, it is a mental disease. When seen in adults such as yourself, it requires medication, if not confinement. It’s for your own good. And speaking of children, you have some, do you not? With a guardian such as yourself...

The way psychiatrists describe childhood mood swings, gender identity, autism and dozens of mental health disorders could soon change drastically. The American Psychiatric Association (APA) is in the midst of massive revisions to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, better known as the DSM. This tome is the repository of diagnostic criteria for everything from schizophrenia to insomnia. The implications are far-reaching, from how a disorder is named and so how it's viewed by the public to whether treatment for the disorder gets covered by health insurance. For instance, the controversy over the naming and inclusion of gender-identity...

IF you ask my daughter, Isabel, what autism means to her, she won’t say that it is a condition marked by impaired social communication and repetitive behaviors. She will say that her autism makes her a good artist, helps her to relate to animals and gives her perfect pitch. The stigma of autism is fading fast. One reason is that we now understand that autism is a spectrum with an enormous range. Some people with autism are nonverbal with profound cognitive disabilities, while others are accomplished professionals. Many people with milder symptoms of autism have, for the past 20 years...

Some children and teens are more likely than their peers to become addicted to the Internet, and a new study suggests it's more likely to happen if kids are depressed, hostile, or have attention deficit hyperactivity disorder or social phobia. Although an Internet addiction is not an official diagnosis, signs of a potential problem include using the Internet so much for game playing or other purposes that it interferes with everyday life and decision-making ability. (The diagnosis is being considered for the 2012 edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, the "bible" of mental ailments published by...

As transgender activists protested outside the American Psychiatric Association (APA) meeting, speakers at the meeting were presenting on the same topic: gender identity disorder (GID). Some of their words would add clinical weight to the political slogans. Some of the speakers are activists themselves, including Rebecca Allison, MD, cardiologist who is transgender, widely published author Sarah Hoffman, whose son is gender variant, and Hewlett-Packard engineer Kelley Winters, PhD, founder of GID Reform Advocates. Winters1 has called on the APA to use the DSM-V revision to affirm that “in the absence of dysphoria, gender identity and expression that vary from assigned...

"New Ways to Diagnose Autism Earlier" read a recent headline in the Wall Street Journal. There is no question that you can diagnose anything as early as you want. The real question is whether the diagnosis will turn out to be correct. My own awareness of how easy it is to make false diagnoses of autism grew out of experiences with a group of parents of late-talking children that I formed back in 1993. A number of those children were diagnosed as autistic. But the passing years have shown most of the diagnoses to have been false, as most of...

EVANSTON, Ill. --- What's wrong with being shy, and just when and how did bashfulness and other ordinary human behaviors in children and adults become psychiatric disorders treatable with powerful, potentially dangerous drugs, asks a Northwestern University scholar in a new book that already is creating waves in the mental health community. In “Shyness: How Normal Behavior Became a Sickness” (Yale University Press, October 2007), Northwestern's Christopher Lane chronicles the “highly unscientific and often arbitrary way” in which widespread revisions were made to “The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders” (DSM), a publication known as the bible of psychiatry...

EARLIER this summer, the American Psychiatric Association announced that a 27-member panel will update its official diagnostic handbook, the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. The fifth edition, which is scheduled to come out in 2012, is likely to add new mental illnesses and refine some existing ones. High on the agenda will be the controversial diagnosis of childhood bipolar disorder. Recent data show that office visits by children and adolescents treated for the condition jumped 40-fold from 1994 to 2003. We still don’t know how much of this increase represents long-overdue care of mentally ill youth and how...

After reading an article about the Iraq war, I thought: What is taking so long? What is taking so long for the American media to quell all of the "manipulation" and actually report what is going on in the world? -snip I am a journalism student. It is refreshing to know that there are still journalists who care more about their readers than the agenda of sinister plotters bent on profiteering from an unjustified conflict while risking the young lives of U.S. soldiers. Seeking the truth, I recently came upon the Downing Street memos. These are the recorded minutes of...

CHICAGO - Most of the experts who prepared the world's leading medical guide to mental illness had undisclosed financial relationships with drug companies that presented potential conflicts of interest, according to a new report published Thursday in the journal Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics. The study is the first to document extensive monetary connections between drug companies, psychiatrists and other scientists responsible for the American Psychiatric Association's Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. The DSM, as it's commonly called, defines all the mental illnesses recognized by psychiatry and outlines the criteria used to determine whether a person has one of these...

It was bound to happen. In the span of a single generation, we have seen the practice of sodomy evolve from a bizarre sexual behavior to a normative alternative lifestyle; from illegality to a constitutional right; from the closet to the boardroom; from tolerance to promotion; and lastly, from the bathhouse to the marriage altar. The next step, which is already in process, is reminiscent of a Soviet-style “reeducation” program. According to a December 10, 2005, Washington Post article, “Psychiatry Ponders Whether Extreme Bias Can Be an Illness,” it seems there is a serious move afoot to formally designate those...

January 6, 2006 - In early December 2005, Washington Post writer Shankar Vedantam reported on the efforts of UCLA psychology professor Edward Dunbar to encourage the psychiatric community to add "extreme bias" against homosexuals (or ethnic groups) added to the American Psychiatric Association's Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM). Professor Dunbar is considered an expert on hate crimes and serves as a consultant with the Los Angeles City Police Department, the LA Unified School District and the Los Angeles Gay and Lesbian Center. The Post article quotes Darrel A. Regier, director of research at the APA who supports...

California Psychologist Wants 'Extreme Bias' Against Homosexuals Added To 'DSM' January 6, 2006 - In early December 2005, Washington Post writer Shankar Vedantam reported on the efforts of UCLA psychology professor Edward Dunbar to encourage the psychiatric community to add "extreme bias" against homosexuals (or ethnic groups) added to the American Psychiatric Association's Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM). Professor Dunbar is considered an expert on hate crimes and serves as a consultant with the Los Angeles City Police Department, the LA Unified School District and the Los Angeles Gay and Lesbian Center. The Post article quotes Darrel...

My, what a busy summer it's been! I've been away for awhile enjoying time with the family and, during my travels, I noticed something very odd happening out there. People are talking about Iraq instead of "American Idol." They're bitching about gas prices instead of bitching about the wrong person being "fired" by The Donald. There are more and more people expressing outrage about what they're reading and seeing on the media rather than being outraged with the media itself. There seems to be a tsunami of buyer's remorse sweeping over the land and the size and nature of this...

Since it was first published in the British press in May, the so-called Downing Street memo has generated debate about the Bush administration's intentions of going to war. Critics of the Iraq war have seized on the document--minutes of a July 23, 2002, meeting between British Prime Minister Tony Blair and his senior government leadership--as proof that the Bush administration was hell-bent for war even as it publicly sought to bring Saddam Hussein to heel through diplomacy. War critics have focused on a section of the document in which a British spy agency chief, identified as C, discussed a recent...

The media and the Leftists have had a field day with the Downing Street memos that they claim imply that the Bush administration lied about the intelligence on WMD in order to justify the attack on Iraq. Despite the fact that none of the memos actually say that, none of them quote any officials or any documents, and that the text of the memos show that the British government worried about the deployment of WMD by Saddam against Coalition troops, Kuwait and/or Israel, the meme continues to survive. Until tonight, however, no one questioned the authenticity of the documents provided...

Democrats are now focusing on the Downing Street Memo — the prewar British document that seems to prove Bush administration dishonesty.... Yet history lessons won't win back the public's trust on national security. The Democratic Party has to confront its dovish base. Most Democrats today are increasingly skeptical of using military force — even against terrorists. No wonder the public thinks the party is weak on national security. Exactly 50 percent of Democrats do not believe dismantling al Qaeda should be a top foreign-policy goal. In fact, when recently asked to name the top two "most important foreign policy goals,"...

Democrats Play House To Rally Against the War By Dana Milbank Post Friday, June 17, 2005; A06 In the Capitol basement yesterday, long-suffering House Democrats took a trip to the land of make-believe. They pretended a small conference room was the Judiciary Committee hearing room, draping white linens over folding tables to make them look like witness tables and bringing in cardboard name tags and extra flags to make the whole thing look official. Rep. John Conyers Jr. (D-Mich.) banged a large wooden gavel and got the other lawmakers to call him "Mr. Chairman." He liked that so much that...

FReepers from the DC Chapter conducted a FReep of the Downing Street Memo Rally  at Lafayette Park next to the White House on June 16. The DSM Rally was sponsored by Code Pink and Progressive Democrats of America (the outfit of William Rivers Pitt of DUmmie FUnnies fame) in an attempt to refight their crushing defeat in the last election. The leftists, including John Conyers (D-Michigan) and other members of Congress who spoke or attended, are trying to impeach President Bush by using a triple-hearsay, ambiguous memo (read great National Review article here) of a lower level British Foreign Office...

I occasionally award a Kewpie Doll to those DUmmies posting a reply which demonstrates a brief moment of mental clarity. However, I must now present a Kewpie Doll to DUmmie ZombyWoof for posting an entire THREAD titled, “The DSM is just getting your false hopes up,” which incredibly for DUmmieland actually shows a sharp perception of reality. Unfortunately for DUmmie ZombyWoof, it could lead to his tombstoning in Dummieland since his thread is almost as taboo as mentioning “pancreatic cancer” in relation to Andy Stephenson. In any event, we can now get a sneak preview of the incredible depression...