DOES THE DSM PROVIDE CAUSES OF PSYCHIATRIC ISSUES

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Welcome to the Psychological Theories podcast.In this podcast, we take a journey
into the human mind with one psychologicaltheory at a time. So let's begin.
Many of you might have heard ofthe DSM, or the Diagnostic and
Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders some peoplerefer to as the Bible of psychiatry.

(00:22):
However, the diagnosis is listed inthe DSM do not cause anything, even
though the way it's perceived seems toallude to that fact. These diagnosises are
not tangible entities. Instead, theyare agreed upon labels for describing symptoms.
For example, generalized anxiety disorder indicatesthat a person has been anxious or worried

(00:45):
for six months or more. Thisis a criteria. And this is,
by the way, a difference betweencriteria and symptoms symptoms is when you say,
when you see people talking about orhear people talking about, oh,
I think they have such and suchdisorder because they have this and this and
this. But if they don't haveduration and how much distress it's causing that
person, they're only talking about symptomsand you can't make a diagnosis off of

(01:07):
that. Back to this, sogeneralized anxiety disorder again, indicates that a
person has been worried or anxious forat least six months and that it causes
significant problems. The diagnosis is adescription, not an explanation. It's like
saying anxiety is caused by generalized anxiety. Disorder is similar to saying anxiety is
caused by anxiety. This was aquote from doctor Scheddler in the Psychology Today.

(01:30):
The same logic applies to other commondiagnoses. Major depressive disorder is another
one. Means a person who's hadpersistently despressed mood or a lack of interest
or pleasure and activities for at leasttwo weeks or more, along with other
criteria. I think there's about nine. You got to check five out of
nine off. But you can checkthe first five or the last five,

(01:51):
and you're gonna have somebody presenting withdepression that looks different. Major depressive disorder
does not cause the symptoms. Itis simply the term used to describe them.
Doctor Scheddler also mentions circular reasoning,how do we know if patient has
depression because they have the symptoms,And why do they have the symptoms because
they have depression? You can seethe circular logic. Confusion arises because medical

(02:12):
diag Medical diagnoses typically point to ideologyof underlying biological causes. For instance,
somebody says, I have chest pain. That's not the disease, but a
symptom of something may there, whetherit be myocarditis or pneumonia or whatever it
may be, but it's a biologicalcause underneath. Psychiatric diagnoses are fundamentally different

(02:35):
because they're descriptive rather than explanatory.It's not a matter of us not yet
knowing their causes. Rather, DSMdiagnoses are not meant to identify causes,
only to describe the effects and kindof guide to the therapist, and some
would say it's more of a guidebook to help us how to address these
situations. Many psychiatrists adhere to thebiopsychosocial model, which posits that the causes

(02:55):
of mental health issues can be biological, psychical, psychological, and social.
However, the DSM is not organizedaround those factors, and the biopsychosocial model
really it's giving you three slices ofthe pie. The whole pie tells us
what this individual has, and we'retrying to look for the cause of it.

(03:15):
And the arguments really go who's gotthe larger slice of the pies,
the biological component, the sociological component, or the psychological component. That's really
the argument that these individuals tend tohave nature versus nurture is pretty much out
the window. We know they bothwork together, but which one has the
bigger slice of the pie, Andevery disorder is going to be a little

(03:36):
different. So again, remember theDSM four is not providing causes, it's
just providing descriptions.