#124- APA Bullying RE: DSM5 Watch site.

Please note that Suzy Chapman's blog, DSM-5 watch, has moved to
http://dxrevisionwatch.wordpress.com/.
The reasons are Orwellian, Suzy says here http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/dsm5-in-distress/201201/is-dsm-5-public-trust-or-apa-cash-cow

"Until last week, my website published under the domain name
http://dsm5watch.wordpress.com/ .

On December 22, I was stunned to receive two emails from the Licensing and Permissions department of American Psychiatric Publishing, claiming that the domain name my site operates under was infringing upon the DSM 5 trademark in violation of United States Trademark Law and that my unauthorized actions may subject me to contributory infringement liability including increased damages for willful infringement. I was told to cease and desist immediately all use of the DSM 5 mark and to provide documentation within ten days confirming I had done so."

"Given my limited resources compared with APA's deep pockets, I had no choice but to comply and was forced to change my site's domain name to
http://dxrevisionwatch.wordpress.com/.

Hits to the new site have plummeted dramatically and it will take months for traffic to recover - just at the time when crucial DSM 5 decisions are being made."

Please spread the word.
***
PS: added by a friend:

Will the APA please recline on the couch?

When I attempt analysis of a situation or occurrence, I include questions like; ‘how else could things have gone’ or ‘how else could x have behaved’. Seeing alternatives often highlights the choices that have been made.

The APA letter to Suzy Chapman (see http://dxrevisionwatch.wordpress.com/) appears to be written in legalese to my untrained eye, so it may have been written by a lawyer acting on behalf of others. Therefore the wording of the letter does not give clues about motives or processes. The fact that it is legalese and is threatening does give information.

How else could it have been done? Perhaps a friendly email from someone asking if Ms Chapman would mind corresponding or having a telephone conversation about her website may have been an option. Or if more purposeful action was thought appropriate, a letter could have requested changing the domain name and pointed-out that the current name infringed copyright. It might have been nice if the APA had offered to compensate Ms Chapman for any costs and inconvenience incurred in helping with their request.

In other words, a collegial and civilized approach was feasible and threats and other heavy-handed tactics could have been saved for a last resort. They were not.

Therefore it appears that a choice was made to be heavy-handed. A major organization versus an independent citizen. It looks like bullying from any angle.

The APA are fussing about anyone using their branded ‘DSM’ name. Naming a thing is always symbolic of understanding something about its nature. Renaming is indicative of change and therefore changing its nature. This results in loss of the old identity. That the APA is in some respects reinventing itself with DSM-5 seems quite likely. The comfortable old identity, partly bound to DSM-IV is being lost so the organization is thrown into uncertainty. Rather like a person experiencing a significant change of role. They may be excited by new possibilities but at the same time feel the loss of the old way of being. This can lead to insecurity and any challenge to the identity – old or new, is felt acutely.

So here is an organization which represents perhaps the stodgiest of all the health specialities, conservative, authoritarian and awkward in relating to others that is having an identity crisis during its transition from DSM-IV to DSM-5.

Little wonder they are behaving somewhat hysterically as they appear to be in neurosis. The longing to cling to the known and trusted good-old-ways seems to be in conflict with the desire to modernize, get hip, and start relating to the real world rather than living in the deep and cosy recesses of its own bottom. The good-old-days when patients did what they were told and didn’t answer back are gone. The times when a few highfalutin 4 syllable words daunted commentators is past. It’s a brave new world.

Take heart APA. There is a valued place for psychiatry and psychology in this frantic modern world (as I hope my light-hearted ‘analysis’ shows).

Change will happen. Try to identify the unavoidable losses and make them a conscious sacrifice. Be accepting of uncertainty about who you are and what you are for – you cannot completely control these; only discover them on your journey into the future. Try to avoid imposing your own fears on others along the way.

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#58~ DSM-5 Letters sent by WPI and more

Open Whittemore Peterson Institute response here in PDF format:
WPI DSM-5 statement 

or here: http://www.wpinstitute.org/news/docs/DSM-5WPIaw2.pdf

April 16, 2010
DSM-5 Task Force
American Psychiatric Association
1000 Wilson Boulevard Suite 1825
Arlington, VA 22209

Members of the DSM-5 Task Force:

The Whittemore Peterson Institute would like to address the potential revision of the American Psychiatric Association’s (APA)’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual for Mental Disorders (DSM-5). The APA’s proposed changes would combine several existing somatic categories into one larger category, Complex Somatic Symptom Disorder, adding language that closely resembles the CDC’s criteria for Chronic Fatigue Syndrome with additional sickness related behaviors that are often evidenced by those who are ill with a disease when it is poorly understood and characterized symptomatically.

The following language has been proposed:

To meet criteria for CSSD, criteria A, B, and C are necessary.

A. Somatic symptoms:

Multiple somatic symptoms that are distressing or one severe symptom

B. Misattributions, excessive concern or preoccupation with symptoms and illness: At least two of the following are required to meet this criterion:

High level of health-related anxiety.

Normal bodily symptoms are viewed as threatening and harmful

A tendency to assume the worst about their health (Catastrophizing)

Belief in the medical seriousness of their symptoms despite evidence to the contrary.

Health concerns assume a central role in their lives

C. Chronicity: Although any one symptom may not be continuously present, the state of being symptomatic is chronic and persistent (at least six months).

Recent findings by researchers at the Whittemore Peterson Institute, the Cleveland Clinic and the National Cancer Institute have found a link between those who have been previously diagnosed with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, (ME/CFS) and a new human retrovirus, XMRV. Yet ME/CFS is currently diagnosed symptomatically and requires the patient experience 6 months of severe fatigue. This disease is chronic and often causes a great deal of anxiety for those who suffer from its debilitating symptoms. Therefore, an individual suffering from ME/CFS could be erroneously classified within the new DSM-5 category as a somatic disorder when in fact they clearly suffer from a chronic infectious disease process, evidenced by many physical abnormalities. (Low grade fever, sore throat, severe headache, cognitive dysfunction, and enlarged lymph nodes, and painful joints and muscles).

The new language also adds undue concern about one’s health as criteria for establishing the diagnosis of complex somatic disorder. This is an immeasurable description of behavior that suggests that if one is suffering from an unknown illness and expresses deep concern or seeks answers from multiple sources (a potentially perfectly natural response to such a circumstance) that one could then be classified as having a somatic disorder. Yet, newly recognized diseases require time to develop the appropriate conformational laboratory tests. During that period of time, does it not remain the responsibility of physicians to recognize the patient’s illness and reassure the patient that they will do all they can to alleviate their suffering?

A person who is afflicted with Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome is often incapable of taking care of their own most basic needs. The swiftness with which one is incapacitated without relief often results in accompanying depression and anxiety. If this patient is advised not to believe their own symptoms of illness they may become further traumatized by the doctors whose sworn duty is to “first do no harm”.

The Whittemore Peterson Institute is deeply concerned that there will be future complex biological diseases of unknown origin, which could too easily be ignored as the result of the diagnosis of “complex somatic disorders”. This would result in serious consequences for those patients who continue to decline in health without appropriate medical interventions.

The term CSSD may also serve as a diagnosis to be used by physicians who currently lack the sophisticated diagnostic tools to describe a new and emerging illness, causing serious harm to those who are ill. Two such recent examples of diseases once categorized as somatic illnesses are multiple sclerosis which was originally called, “hysterical women’s disease” and gastrointestinal ulcers. Only after these diseases were pursued by those who believed in their physical causes with subsequent biological research, were medically effective treatments made available. Thus creating a somatic diagnosis, when there is in fact a physical illness, would relegate a population of patients to many more years of suffering, while basic biological research funding is denied.

For these reasons, the WPI requests that the APA thoughtfully examine the purpose and possible unintended consequences for the encompassing somatic category of illness, Complex Somatic Disorder, and emphatically requests that the DSM-5 task force reject CSSD, as a medical or psychiatric diagnosis.

Sincerely,

Annette Whittemore
Founder and CEO
Whittemore Peterson Institute
6600 North Wingfield Parkway
Sparks Nevada 89436
Phone: 775.348.2335
Fax: 775.348.2350
www.wpinstitute.org 

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I have also added a lin on the Right column for the DSM-5 Watch blog
where other letters will be posted and you may go there to check on
a regular basis to check on  the progress of this issue, OK?
Please STAY on TOP of this... it is IMPORTANT to OUR Cause also...

Thanks..

Comments are always appreciated and welcomed...
I have just had to set them to Modersation because of the SPAM
commenters... I will approve REAL comments each day ~
Thanks for understanding and KEEP Posting ♥
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