Binge eating and gambling classified as mental disorders in new book

The fifth edition of the psychiatrists' bible, DSM V, has sparked a row over the massive growth in mental disorders.

With over 1,000 pages long, it has undergone more than three years of revisions and has set doctors at each other's throats.

The fifth Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders or "DSM 5" was published by the American Psychiatric Association this week.

It is 60 years since the first edition appeared in 1952 , which listed 106 disorders, and the joke is that every time it has been revised it has doubled in size.

By the time DSM 4 appeared in 1994 there were 365, the Independent reported.

Critics claim the latest edition, which dwarfs its predecessors, will increase again the numbers diagnosed with mental disorders who will be dosed with powerful mind-altering drugs, as well as subtly shifting perceptions of what it is to be normal.

They accuse the authors - a 31 strong taskforce - of medicalising human nature through disease mongering by psychiatrists and pharmaceutical companies, eager to create new markets for their treatments.

Among new diagnostic labels to be included are "binge eating disorder", "gambling disorder, and "disruptive mood dysregulation disorder" (child temper tantrums).

"Hypersexual disorder", also known as Clinton syndrome, which appeared in an early draft of the manual has been dropped, and so have "relational disorder" and "sluggish cognitive tempo."

Dr Allen Frances, who chaired the task force that produced DSM 4 almost 20 years ago , has become one of the most vocal critics of DSM 5, and has written a book about his objections 'Saving Normal: an insider's revolt against out-of-control psychiatric diagnoses.'

He cites the changed definition of grief as a depressive disorder - if it persists for more than two weeks in the new edition, compared with two months in the old edition.