The House is set to vote any minute, the whips have been whipping (because they can't offer earmarks anymore) and no matter which way the vote goes a lot of people will be devastated.
Grieving to be labelled mental illness
People suffering from long-term grief after the death of a loved one will soon have their condition officially labelled a mental disorder.Unfortunately the article ends:
Many psychiatrists have argued grief should not be labelled as a mental condition because it is a natural phenomenon which everyone experiences.
However, the next edition of the industry's so-called bible, the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, will include a new diagnosis for people still struggling to cope a year or more after a loved one dies.
The condition will be officially known as adjustment disorder related to bereavement.
University of New South Wales psychology professor Richard Bryant, who is on the manual's review committee, said 10 to 15 per cent of people have a persistent grief reaction which can last up to 40 years.
Those most likely to mourn for more than a year include people who lose a child or suffer a loss through suicide and unexpected death such as a road accident or homicide.
"People have said it's not right to medicinise grief which has personal and culturally specific responses and psychiatry is butting in where it doesn't belong," Prof Bryant told AAP.
"The alternative view is that all of the above is true but we know after a traumatic event a proportion of people will have negative psychological reactions that will affect them....MORE
The next edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders is due to be published by the American Psychiatric Association in 2013.
But wait!!
Isn't that when your ObamaCare waiver expires? And with no pre-existing condition exclusion...
Grieve on!!
All kidding aside, this is a major change. Here is the current state of play, via MedScape:
...The fourth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV) excluded grief as a mental illness, defining it instead as "an expectable and culturally sanctioned response to a particular event" (Prigerson et al., 2009, p. 2). In the DSM-IV, bereavement is considered a "V" code: a condition that needs attention but presents with symptoms characteristic of MDD, such as feelings of sadness, insomnia, or anorexia....
