Question

please, write the source and I will do the citation by my self.

The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM), published by the American Psychiatric Association, provides the foundation for the population measurement of mental disorders. What do you think are the most significant benefits of the DSM for public mental health workers? For researchers in public mental health? Why?

Answer 1

The Diagnostic and Statistical manual has had a significant influence on both psychiatry and society in terms of its conceptual and professional value. Available in its current Fifth edition, the DSM -V addresses some of the problems of its preceding editions and it makes an attempt to provide more universally acceptable conceptual definitions of major psychological disorders and illnesses by taking a recourse to the medical model. However, it also describes a broad spectrum of treatment plan and social interventions for each disorder and gives the epidemiological data for each of the treatment methods. Thus, this is a very beneficial to the practising public mental Heath workers who can use the language of the DSM to lobby for community initiatives and work in cohesion with psychiatrists using the DSM as the tool for bridging communication.

Moreover, the extensive accounts of the causes, instances of comorbid disorders, premorbidity, can help in developing further case researchers on the changing nature of disorders, trace the debilitating effects of the disorder on the social and interpersonally life of the patient and his/her significant others, develop further intervention and treatment procedures to prevent another disorder from taking shape if it is found to coexist in simulateneity with another disorder. Thus, the DSM is not merely a guideline for identifying symptoms but is more useful in terms of its professional uses for a diverse group health care professionals and also serves as a rich account of the prevalence, severity of a disorder and the need to develop further probes and research questions around the success of treatment procedures.

Source:

‘Kawa, S. and Giordano, J. (2012).‘A brief historicity of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders: Issues and implications for the future of psychiatric canon and practice’. Philosophy, Ethics, and Humanities in Medicine : PEHM, 7, 2. http://doi.org/10.1186/1747-5341-7-2