New Lay Guide to DSM-5 Concludes With Chapter on Treatment Essentials
Abstract
The final chapter in Understanding Mental Disorders: Your Guide to DSM-5 includes descriptions of mental health professionals, what happens during a visit to a psychiatrist, and types of treatments. This is the last in this series on the new consumer guide.
“Mental illness, just like other medical disorders, can be treated with success. Treatment can bring relief from distress, improved symptoms, better coping with problems, and, most of all, hope and support.”
So begins the last chapter of the new consumer guide, Understanding Mental Disorders: Your Guide to DSM-5, published this month by American Psychiatric Publishing. After defining every mental illness listed in the clinicians’ DSM-5 (which was published in 2013), the new guide’s 20th chapter focuses on “Treatment Essentials,” describing and defining the various types of mental health professionals that a patient might see and what happens when a patient makes an appointment with a mental health professional—evaluation, diagnosis, and treatment plan.
The chapter also describes the wide range of treatments that might be employed: psychotherapies, electroconvulsive therapy, transcranial magnetic stimulation, and the various classes of medications. There is also a glossary of mental health terms and an appendix listing every single medication used by psychiatrists, with generic and common brand names.
Getting Better and Staying Healthy
Understanding Mental Disorders: Your Guide to DSM-5 includes the following tips for patients and their families about how to help maintain their mental health:
Exercise has proven to be good not only for the body, but also for the mind. It is particularly beneficial for depression. It is also an effective means of reducing anxiety. Physical exercise can also relieve tension and enhance the sense of well-being and overall health.
A healthy, well-balanced diet should be part of every treatment plan. This includes leafy greens, vegetables, fruit, beans, lean meats, fish, and whole grains. Poor eating habits such as skipping meals, eating too quickly, or eating too much junk food (lots of sugar, fast food) can make people physically uncomfortable and psychologically unwell. A healthful, balanced diet can improve health and help someone feel better.
High amounts of caffeine can cause anxiety or panic attacks and worsen these conditions. Alcohol can make problems worse.
Avoid downbeat self-talk. Focus on things you like about yourself and those things that you do well.
Create an optimistic point of view. When bad things happen to those with an optimistic view, they tend to see such setbacks or losses as specific and temporary incidents—not as judgments on themselves or their whole lives. The key to change is getting rid of the automatic negative thoughts that may flood your brain. Replace them with positive truths. Keep a list with you of your strengths and what you value in your life to remind yourself of what is important.
Humor often allows us to express fears and negative feelings without causing distress to ourselves or others. It also may produce enhanced physical well-being. Since we laugh often with others, humor helps in forging supportive relationships.
Build friendships to give and receive support. In relationships, people may find that some problems are easier to put into perspective. Reaching out to others is important.
Doing good things enhances self-esteem and may relieve physical and mental stress. Find ways to help others that you enjoy or are linked to your hobbies.
Peers or peer-support groups can offer empathy, build morale, and create a new social world for people dealing with similar life issues.
“We really felt that the guide needed to include information for patients and families about what to expect when they see a mental health professional, what kinds of professionals can help them, and what treatment options are available,” said Robert Hales, M.D., editor in chief of books for American Psychiatric Publishing and a member of a six-member editorial panel that oversaw the writing and editing of the new guide.
The section describing psychotherapies provides an example of the prosaic, straightforward language in which the new guide is written: “There are many different types of psychotherapy, and some are more effective for certain problems, or for certain people, than others,” the guide states. “Most mental health care providers today are trained in a variety of techniques and tailor their approach to the problem, personality, and needs of the person seeking help. Because mental health care providers may combine different techniques in the course of therapy, the lines between the various approaches are often blurred. The relationship that grows between the person and the mental health care provider is called the therapeutic alliance. This working relationship allows them to work together in a trusting, cooperative manner. Anything shared in a session with a mental health care provider is kept private. Mental health care providers are bound by ethics not to divulge any information without the person’s consent. The exception is if there is likely harm to the person or others.”
The chapter then provides brief descriptions of psychodynamic psychotherapy, interpersonal psychotherapy, supportive psychotherapy, cognitive-behavioral therapy, dialectic behavior therapy, group therapy, and couples, marital, and family counseling.
All of the chapters on diagnostics as well as the chapter on treatment essentials also include helpful, user-friendly tips for how patients and families can be empowered to care for themselves while also receiving psychiatric care. (See excerpts from “Getting Better and Staying Healthy” in box at right).
The consumer guide came about after a six-member editorial advisory panel was convened last year to discuss the project. That panel included Hales; Donald Black, M.D., a professor of psychiatry at the University of Iowa Roy J. and Lucille A. Carver College of Medicine; Jeffrey Borenstein, M.D., president and chief executive officer of the Brain & Behavior Research Foundation and editor in chief of Psychiatric News; Ellen Frank, Ph.D., a professor of psychiatry and of psychology at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine and DSM-5 text coordinator for mood disorders; David Kupfer, M.D., the Thomas Detre Professor of Psychiatry and Professor of Clinical and Translational Science at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine and DSM-5 task force chair; and Susan K. Schultz, M.D., a professor and vice chair for clinical translation in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Iowa Roy J. and Lucille A. Carver College of Medicine and DSM-5 text editor. A first draft of the book was written by Glenda Fauntleroy, a professional writer specializing in health and medical information, and each chapter was carefully edited by the members of the editorial advisory panel. The book was also reviewed by representatives of patient advocacy groups, such as the National Alliance on Mental Illness.
“DSM-5 was a significant change to the psychiatric nomenclature,” Hales told Psychiatric News. “APA has always had a mission to help consumers and to educate the public. We thought it was time to have a book written specifically for consumers—for patients and their families—that was written in laypersons’ language. We believe it can serve as a guide to understanding what mental illness is and how it can be treated.” ■
APA members can purchase Understanding Mental Disorders: Your Guide to DSM-5 at a discount here.
