The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) is the handbook used by health care professionals in the United States and much of the world as the authoritative guide to the diagnosis of mental disorders. 

DSM serves as a tool for defining and diagnosing mental disorders in a variety of settings, including clinics, private practice, schools, hospitals, courtrooms, and the insurance industry. 

Psychiatrists, psychologists, other mental health care professionals, other physicians, nurses, lawyers, and social workers use DSM as a clinical guide.

It’s also standard teaching practice in many allopathic as well as many government funded complementary health programs that any chronic health condition lasting longer than 6 weeks should be referred on for a psychological review. 

So this manual holds a pretty powerful role in how and who clinicians will diagnose with mental health disorders and how they medicate individuals. 

Dr James Davies PhD is the author of the books Cracked: Why Psychiatry Is Doing More Harm Than Good, and Sedated: How Modern Capitalism Created Our Mental Health Epidemic.

Dr Davies books are based on extensive research on how and why the DSM was created and what he discovered will shock you. 

If you or a loved one has ever been diagnosed, medicated or treated with medications that may have been initially created for mental health disorders (ie conditions involving long term pain management, pre menstrual syndromes), I strongly encourage you to watch his presentation.

https://youtu.be/-Nd40Uy6tbQ?si=6As6a6vpLLfTydEY

For a deeper dive, please see the following additional resources: 

Saving Normal: An Insider's Revolt Against Out-of-Control Psychiatric Diagnosis, DSM-5, Big Pharma, and the Medicalization of Ordinary Life :
https://www.amazon.com.au/Saving-Normal-Out-Control-Medicalization/dp/0062229257

A Critical History of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders : 
https://gettherapybirmingham.com/a-critical-history-of-the-diagnostic-and-statistical-manual-of-mental-disorders/