Duke University
Professor Emeritus and former Chair of the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Duke University School of Medicine; chairman of the DSM-IV task force and author of Saving Normal: An Insider's Revolt Against Out-of-Control Psychiatric Diagnosis, DSM-5, Big Pharma, and the Medicalization of Ordinary Life
Will the DSM-5 Redefine Who's Normal and Who's Not? The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, the DSM, is an important book for psychiatrists and their patients. Published by the American Psychiatric Association in 1994, the fourth edition has had enormous influence: helping doctors determine which patients are well and which are mentally ill. In cases of illness, the DSM recommends appropriate treatments, including medicines. Wednesday's publication of the DSM-5 has divided the psychiatric profession. But high profile critics claim it's a recipe for over-diagnosis and excessive medication to the benefit of a professional clique and drug manufacturers. With an absence of scientific understanding of how the brain really works, are there better alternatives? We hear a variety of opinions.
Who's to blame for the opioid crisis? Some of the lawyers who took on Big Tobacco are now going after Big Pharma. It’s all about the deadly epidemic of opioid use. Are the drug companies to blame? What about the users? Later, on today’s Talking Point: making sense of Britain’s upset election.
Is the threat from Russia missing from the Russia meddling probe? There's much being made about the Trump administration's possible ties with Russia. But the bottom line is Russia's effort to influence American democracy. Do the President and his aides care enough to take action before voters go back to the polls?