2012-01-25 HealthDay News - Psychiatrists Debate Classifying Grief as Treatable Disorder

[Minuteman]

http://www.healthfinder.gov/news/new...x?Docid=661068 Accessed: 2012-01-25. Archived by WebCite at http://www.webcitation.org/64y91Kldg

Grieving could become a treatable psychiatric disorder if proposed changes to the American Psychiatric Association's standard diagnostic manual get adopted.

Work on the fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, or DSM, has launched a debate about the definition of depression. The current wording excludes bereavement, which some psychiatrists say hurts people who need help coping with their loss.

The DSM, last revised in 1996, is the major resource for psychiatric professionals and a source of many insurance decisions, affecting millions of people.

"There is the potential for considerable false-positive diagnosis and unnecessary treatment of grief-stricken persons," said New York researchers on one side of the debate, according to the New York Times.

Dr. Alan Hilfer, chief of psychology at Maimonides Medical Center, New York City, agreed. In a statement, he said that "Grieving is a healthy process. Sometimes we need to treat those who have suffered a loss with sleep aids or other medications, but to make this process a medical condition that would enable large scale prescribing of drugs would be a travesty," he said.

However, another expert supports the new terminology. "Depression can and does occur in the wake of bereavement, it can be severe and debilitating, and calling it by any other name is doing a disservice to people who may require more careful attention," Dr. Sidney Zisook, a professor of psychiatry at the University of California, San Diego, told the newspaper.

Currently, to qualify for a diagnosis of depression, five of nine symptoms are needed for at least two weeks. These include loss of concentration, sleeping too much or too little, feelings of worthlessness and recurrent thoughts of suicide.

Other proposed changes to the manual have also stirred controversy. Experts last week argued against a proposal to tighten the autism definition, noting that the change would bar many currently diagnosed with an autistic spectrum disorder from receiving important services.