Heidi Ledford at Nature News reports on the Division 32 led petition, "Open Letter to the DSM-5":
Psychologist David Elkins had modest ambitions for his petition. He and his colleagues were worried that proposed changes to an influential handbook of mental disorders could classify normal behaviours as psychological conditions, potentially leading to inappropriate treatments. So they laid out their concerns in an open letter, co-sponsored by five divisions of the American Psychological Association in Washington DC. “I thought, 'Well, maybe we'll get a couple or maybe 30 signatures',” says Elkins, an emeritus professor at Pepperdine University in Malibu, California.
But the letter, posted online on 22 October (http://go.nature.com/uhmvqq), touched a nerve. Within 10 days more than 2,800 people had signed it, many identifying themselves as mental-health professionals.
The petition targets proposed revisions to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM), a tome used by psychiatrists, psychologists, counsellors and others worldwide to diagnose mental maladies and set research agendas. The American Psychiatric Association, based in Arlington, Virginia, plans to publish a new edition of the manual, DSM-5, in 2013. The association has declined to comment on Elkins's petition.
Psychiatrist Allen Frances, who was the chief architect of DSM-IV and is an outspoken critic of its successor, has dubbed the open letter a “buyer's revolt”. “I think the petition is the last best hope to influence the DSM-5 from the outside,” says Frances, an emeritus professor at Duke University School of Medicine in Durham, North Carolina.
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