DSM-5: Call for Commentaries on Gender Dysphoria, Sexual Dysfunctions, and Paraphilic Disorders

Abstract

On May 18, 2013, at the annual meeting of the American Psychiatric Association in San Francisco, the fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (American Psychiatric Association, 2013) was, with intense anticipation, released. When I arrived the day earlier, I immediately encountered three men protesting peacefully on the sidewalk outside of my hotel: One sign read ‘‘Equal Rights for Men! End Forced Circumcision.’’Another read‘‘Intact Genitals Are a Human Right.’’ I wasn’t sure what this had to do with the DSM-5. Turns out, it was a different protest for a different meeting. False alarm. As hoards of psychiatrists wandered in and about the Moscone Center holding their newly-purchased purple-colored copies of DSM-5—all 947 pages of it—one could not help but notice thecuriousjuxtapositionwithwhatseemedtomyeyealot of homeless people with psychotic symptoms also wandering around the neighborhood. As usual, the scientologists were out onthestreet in forcealthoughIdidnot seeTomCruise. I respectfully toldoneprotester that sheneededtogoArabicfromRoman (DSM-5, not DSM-V). She thanked me for the tip. Since the DSM-5 Task Force was formally announced in April 2008, a tremendous amount of effort was put into the final product: literature reviews, secondary data analyses, field trials, face-to-face meetings, conference calls, and, in the era of the Internet, thousands upon thousands of e-mails. In addition, the Task Force received input in the form of public commentaries, feedback from advisors to the Workgroups, and internal review panels. In this issue, the Gender Identity Disorders subworkgroup has reproduced its Memo Outlining Evidence for Change for Gender Identity Disorder (Zucker et al., 2013), which it had submitted to two internal advisory committees to the DSM-5 Task Force: the Scientific Review Committee and the Clinical and Public Health Committee. By publishing it in Archives, the argumentation of the subworkgroup is available for perusal by anyone who wants to read it. I chaired the Sexual and Gender Identity Disorders Workgroup. It consisted of three subworkgroups: Gender Identity Disorders, Sexual Dysfunctions, and the Paraphilias. Table 1 lists the members of these three subworkgroups. Our Workgroup published its literature reviews in 2010 in the Archives of Sexual Behavior and in the Journal of Sexual Medicine (Binik, 2010a, b; Blanchard, 2010a, b; Brotto, 2010a, b, c; CohenKettenis & Pfafflin, 2010; Drescher, 2010; Graham, 2010a, b; Kafka,2010a,b,c;Krueger,2010a,b;Langstrom,2010;MeyerBahlburg, 2010; Segraves, 2010a, b, c; Zucker, 2010). There were also contributions from advisors to the Workgroup (Hanson, 2010; Hucker, 2011; Knight, 2010; Quinsey, 2010; Stern, 2010; Thornton, 2010). The diagnostic proposals and rationales (in various iterations) were also posted on the dsm5.org website of the American Psychiatric Association. Since 2010, various articles, commentaries, one consumer survey, and Letters-to-the Editor weighed in on the literature reviews and proposals by the Workgroup or had more general things to say (e.g., Angel, 2010; Balon, 2010, 2012, 2013; Balon & Wise, 2011; Beier et al., 2013; Berlin, 2011; Binik, Brotto, Graham, & Segraves, 2010; Blanchard, 2010c, d, 2011a, b, 2012; Brotto, Graham, Binik, Segraves, & Zucker, 2011; Cantor, 2012a, b; De Block & Adriaens, 2013; DeRogatis, Clayton, Rosen, Sand, & Pyke, 2011; DeRogatis et al., 2010a, b; Drescher, 2013; Drescher, Cohen-Kettenis, & Winter, 2012; Eliason, 2010; Fabian, 2011; Fedoroff, 2011; First, 2010, 2011; Frances & First, 2011a, b; Frances & Wollert, 2012; Franklin, K. J. Zucker (&) Gender Identity Service, Child, Youth, and Family Services, Underserved Populations Program, Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, 80 Workman Way, Toronto, ON M6J 1H4, Canada e-mail: Ken.Zucker@camh.ca 1 My favorite reference of them all.