News Ptsd Will Cease Being An Anxiety Disorder - Dsm 5

[anthony]

Why do they have more questions than answers?

Because unless they have PTSD... they don't understand. When you have PTSD, you instantly understand certain facets that professionals only guess and empathize with.

 

[njray]

I agree that "unless you walk in my shoes and they fit perfectly" there is always going to be some unknowns or best guesses that T's and P's will have to base opinions and diagnosis on. I do not know if I should be concerned on these new/rearranged classifications in the DSM V.

I know that many parties are concerned about classifications when it comes to ADHD because of legal "eeze" type stuff. Just from the issue of having or not having the denotation of ADD as opposed to ADHD apparently could have great legal implications in relation to learning disabilities and education rights as well as rights afforded to those under the americans with disabilities act if one was to be diagnosed with certain subtypes of ADHD and not others.

I do wonder if Insurance companies, doctors and/or drug companies will be fighting over dollars and cents based upon different co morbid DX. I suspect I as the patient will or will not be afforded different treatmens/medication coverage based upon these co morbid DX's as well. I can see it now 26 T visits if you have ptsd w/Anxiety and only 24 T visits if you have ptsd w/Depression. If they can save 2 visits by how many patients at how much per visit that is a lot of dough!

 

[Deaf Global Nomad]

This is absolutely fascinating! I have been having the discussion of PTSD and comorbid anxiety disorder and depression with every psychologist and psychiatrist and other doctors I have ever seen. Depending on the diagnostician my diagnosis was usually PTSD plus one or the other, never both. I have a tendency to grill my medical professionals on a good day, but this seemed to be a "creative" way to diagnose. Nobody has ever been able to fully explain it other than that my diagnoses are distinct categories, which seemed more like a non-answer to me. I definitely believe that the core issue in PTSD is the trauma bit, but the full symptomatology really depends on each person. I have the full list of PTSD symptoms. My current therapist luckily sees anxiety, depression, dissociation, flashbacks (I'm probably forgetting a number of others) all as a part of PTSD. My symptoms are so severe (or should I say my functioning has been so severely affected?) that, luckily, I qualify for all of the therapy sessions I need. It sometimes takes going to visit the insurance company in the Fall to encourage them to pay for sessions for the rest of the year, but with my multiple disabilities it is still cheaper providing me with various therapies, independent living services, case managers, in-home services, etc... than putting me into a nursing home or paying for regular hospital stays. Our goal is still to get me to be a fully-functional professor at a University despite all of the barriers in the system. I am so close and yet so far with the unpredictability of PTSD...

 

[anthony]

I like the APA's work on how they have really integrated "Adjustment Disorder" into the trauma category, which will take up and fit those who do not meet the "traumatic" aspect of the ASD or PTSD diagnosis.

Someone who's partner kills themselves, normal death, etc... will all fall under adjustment disorder, being that the events are stressful, and continued, ie. 3 months + or 12 months + for bereavement... without coming into actual PTSD, which is reserved for the more violent extremes of life's traumatic events.

One thing that really makes me think about this new category of "Trauma & Stressor Related Disorders" is that work towards complex trauma diagnosis can then fit, without it being called PTSD, as that is the biggest issue... that complex trauma is not PTSD, but an actual combination of PTSD + BPD normally, typically only Dissociative when sexual abuse is involved during childhood. It seems DESNOS may be the solution for the DSM V... though it will be a wait and see... as DESNOS is Dissociative + BPD...

I like the chatter though about a more specific diagnosis for what tried to be CPTSD, being more accurate IMO with the experts proposing it, Posttraumatic Personality Disorder (PPD). Now that has substance for accuracy IMHO for what complex trauma entails, because so much of complex trauma all comes back to someone close abusing / allowing abuse to occur during developmental years, or subjected long periods in adulthood that change the brain back to childlike. It is the 3 key issues with complex trauma... silencing, secrecy and denial, but one or both parties, which continues to perpetuate further abuse.

PPD is literally a combination of PTSD + DESNOS, as DESNOS is a combination of Dissociation + BPD, pretty much.

Seems even PPD though has not yet made ground of slipping more towards the personality spectrum for complex trauma... so I can see a future more accurate diagnosis coming that covers complex trauma, now with a more accurate grouping away from anxiety... as complex trauma is anything but anxiety based.

Anyway... that is off-topic and rambling more relating to complex trauma aspects.