Proposed Changes in DSM-5: Interview with Micki Washburn, LPC-S and Danielle Parrish, Ph.D.

There’s an old saying, “What’s the fastest way to cure mental illness in an entire group of people? Get rid of the diagnosis.” The proposed changes to DSM-5 get rid of some diagnoses and add others. But that's not all. If you're like me, you have lots of questions about changes to DSM-5. When I posted the question “what would you like to know about the DSM-5” to the Social Work Podcast Facebook page 11 people responded in less than an hour and 20 people responded by the end of the day. So, what did they want to know? Jessica, Shelly, Sandy, Spring, Paul, and Suzannah wanted to know about autism, depression, and personality disorders. Shylah and Jen wanted to know about addictions. Lisa wanted to know what was up with ADHD. Ciarrai and Lyndon posed some great questions about the merits of DSM diagnosis in social work practice.

In today's Social Work Podcast, I speak with Micki Washburn, MA, LPC-S, NCC and Danielle Parrish, Ph.D. about proposed changes in DSM-5. We talked about the cross-cutting dimensional assessment, changes in the organization of the DSM-5, and changes in diagnoses such as ADHD, Asperger’s, Autism, Depression, Substance Use, and personality disorders.  We talked about some of the intended consequences such as greater accuracy for diagnosis, and some of the possible unintended consequences such as loss of funding for diagnostic-specific services.  We end with some thoughts about social work’s role in the new DSM.

Update: DSM-5 was published on May 27, 2013. Social work licensure exams in the USA (ASWB) required DSM-5 starting in 2015.