|
|
|
Editorial Credits/
Crédits éditorials
Subscription
Rates /Prix
d'abonnements
Advertising
Rates / Tarifs publicitaires
|
|
Editorial
Mood Disorders—New
Definitions, New Treament Directions
Paul Grof
PDF
|
|
In Review
"Cade's
Disease" and Beyond: Misdiagnosis, Antidepressant Use, and a Proposed
Definition for Bipolar Spectrum Disorder
S Nassir Ghaemi,
James Y Ko, Frederick K Goodwin
PDF
|
|
The Neurobiology
of Bipolar Disorder: Focus on Signal Transduction Pathways and the
Regulation of Gene Expression
Yarema Bezchlibnyk, L Trevor Young
PDF
|
|
Original
Research
Major Depression
and Its Association With Long-Term Medical Conditions
Lisa M Gagnon, Scott B Patten
PDF
|
|
Seasonal Affective
Disorders: Relevance of Icelandic and Icelandic-Canadian Evidence
to Etiologic Hypotheses
Jóhann Axelsson, Jón G Stefànsson,
Andrés Magnússon, Helgi Sigvaldason, Mikael M Karlsson
PDF
|
|
Canadian Psychiatric
Inpatient Religious Commitment: An Association With Mental Health
Marilyn Baetz, David B Larson, Gene Marcoux, Rudy
Bowen, Ron Griffin
PDF
|
|
The
Moderating Effects of Coping Strategies on Major Depression in the
General Population
JianLi Wang, Scott B Patten
PDF
|
|
Antidepressant
Side Effects in Depression Patients Treated in A Naturalistic Setting:
A Study of Bupropion, Moclobemide, Paroxetine, Sertraline, and Venlafaxine
JD Vanderkooy, Sidney H Kennedy, R Michael Bagby
PDF
|
|
Treatment
Delays for Involuntary Psychiatric Patients Associated With Reviews
of Treatment Capacity
Michelle Kelly, Sandra Dunbar, John E Gray, Richard
L O'Reilly
PDF
|
|
Book Reviews
PDF
|
|
Books Received
|
|
Letters to the Editor
PDF
|
|
Letters to the Editor
DAD = DSM-IV 296.23
Dear Editor:
Psychiatry for the last 100 years has been working toward more precise
definitions of illness, which will aid communication among mental health
professionals and other interested parties. When used as part of a diagnostic
term, words that have colloquial meaning, such as “depression,”
create an obstacle—especially for the patient. Due to misunderstanding,
patients with major depression are bombarded by family, friends, and colleagues
with statements like “I have been depressed and pulled myself out
of it—why can’t you?” The family and the community at large
do not listen to and do not comprehend the qualifier. “Depression”
has been avoided well in the terms “adjustment reaction” and
“seasonal affective disorder” (SAD). No one views AIDS or attention
deficit disorder (ADD) as relating to their own experience: they do not
to berate the sufferers with these conditions to “snap out of it.”
To avoid the negative feedback patients with depression experience, I
wish to propose the term “dysfunctional affective disorder”
(DAD), equivalent to DSM-IV 296.23
It would, I think, more effectively achieve acceptance for patients with
this condition, instead of criticism and rejection. Community-wide education
about major depression has not as yet had significant effects.
AM McFarthing, MB, BS, DPM, MRCPsych
Sudbury, Ontario
|
