Psychiatrists unveil new diagnostic book

NEW YORK - Reuters

The long-awaited, controversial new edition of the bible of psychiatry can be characterized by many numbers: its 947 pages, its $199 price tag, its more than 300 maladies (from “dependent personality disorder” and “voyeuristic disorder” to “delayed ejaculation,” “kleptomania” and “intermittent explosive disorder”), each limning the potential woes of being human. But to the psychiatrist who shepherded the tortuous creation of the “Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders,” perhaps the single most important number is the “5” in its title: This is the DSM-5, not the DSM-V. That may seem like a cosmetic change, but the American Psychiatric Association, which will release the book on Saturday at its annual meeting, decided to use Arabic instead of Roman numerals because “we want it to be a living document,” said Dr David Kupfer of the University of Pittsburgh. Rather than waiting another generation to revise the manual - the DSM-IV was published in 1994 - psychiatrists will regularly update it with.