A new psychiatric disorder is born. A revised version of the DSM-5, the American Psychiatric Association’s (APA) famous manual of mental diagnoses and disorders, released on March 18, includes a new pathology among the 265 listed: “prolonged grief disorder”.
“The circumstances in which we live, with more than 675,000 Covid deaths in the United States, may increase the risk of facing a prolonged grief disorder, APA President Vivian B. Pender said in a Sept. 23 statement. If you have recently lost a loved one, it is very important to take stock. Grief under these circumstances is normal, but not at certain levels and not most of the day, almost every day, for months. » What is “normal” grief for a bereaved person? This latest addition to the DSM again raises the question of the boundary between the normal and the pathological.
The content of the DSM has been debated for years. First published in 1952, with a list of less than 100 psychopathologies, the DSM has become over the years the reference manual for psychiatrists. It is used in courts, prisons or schools, and allows access to care and reimbursement. Always thicker, it is considered responsible for the extension of the domain of the pathological. Parisian psychiatrist Patrick Landman even founded the Stop DSM collective in 2010.
“Making prolonged mourning a pathology goes in the direction of psychiatrization and the medicalization of daily life, Judge Patrick Landman. In the DSM, the variations of the standard are very restricted. » If he admits that bereavements can become pathological, he warns against a ” circumstantial diagnosis, opportunistic in times of pandemic. “People’s psychic structure has not changed because social circumstances change. Grieving is part of the human condition. »
“Stupid Diagnosis”
The DSM-III and IV considered mourners to escape diagnosis of major depressive disorder: it was considered normal to show signs of depression after the loss of a loved one. In 2013, the DSM-5 blew up this exception “clause”: it recognized that mourning does not immunize the patient against depression and that it often precipitates it. This decision followed long and sharp criticism, including that of Allen Frances, professor emeritus at Duke and director of the DSM-IV team (1994).
You have 54.58% of this article left to read. The following is for subscribers only.