ABSTRACT
The pharmaceutical industry has huge amounts at stake when the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM), is revised. Other medical specialties also have links with the pharmaceutical industry, and concern about potential conflicts of interest has become widespread. In addition to general concerns about the American Psychiatric Association (APA) being so heavily reliant on funding from the pharmaceutical industry, there are more specific worries about links between industry and members of the committees revising the DSM. Turning to the DSM-5, the introduction of the new disorder of disruptive mood dysregulation provides another example where pharmaceutical company money has had an impact on the DSM—although in this case perhaps not in quite the ways the companies intended. The diagnosis of children with bipolar disorder is highly controversial. Diagnosis often, although not always, leads to long-term treatment with a cocktail of drugs that generally includes antipsychotics.
