The American Psychiatric Association (APA) is the main professional organization A professional association is a non-profit organization seeking to further a particular profession, the interests of individuals engaged in that profession, and the public interest of psychiatrists A psychiatrist is a physician who specializes in psychiatry and is certified in treating mental disorders. All psychiatrists are trained in diagnostic evaluation and in psychotherapy. As part of their evaluation of the patient, psychiatrists are one of the few mental health professionals who may prescribe psychiatric medication, conduct physical and trainee psychiatrists in the United States ^ b. English is the de facto language of American government and the sole language spoken at home by 80% of Americans age five and older. Spanish is the second most commonly spoken language, and the most influential worldwide. Its some 38,000 members are mainly American ^ b. English is the de facto language of American government and the sole language spoken at home by 80% of Americans age five and older. Spanish is the second most commonly spoken language but some are international. The association publishes various journals and pamphlets, as well as the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders is published by the American Psychiatric Association and provides a common language and standard criteria for the classification of mental disorders. It is used in the United States and in varying degrees around the world, by clinicians, researchers, psychiatric drug regulation agencies,, or DSM. The DSM codifies psychiatric conditions and is used worldwide as a key guide to diagnosing disorders.
The abbreviation 'APA' is also in common and similar usage by the American Psychological Association The American Psychological Association is the largest scientific and professional organization of psychologists in the U.S. and is the world's largest association of psychologists with around 152,000 members including scientists, educators, clinicians, consultants and students and has an annual budget of around $115m. The American Psychological and their 'APA style guide' for journal articles.
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History
At a meeting in 1844 in Philadelphia, 13 superintendents and organizers of insane asylums and hospitals formed the Association of Medical Superintendents of American Institutions for the Insane The Association of Medical Superintendents of American Institutions for the Insane, also known as The Superintendents' Association, was organized in Philadelphia in October, 1844 at a meeting of 13 superintendents, making it the first professional medical specialty organization in the U.S. The objectives of the Association were “to communicate (AMSAII). The group included Thomas Kirkbride creator of the asylum model which was used throughout the United States. At the meeting they passed the first proposition of the new organization: "It is the unanimous sense of this convention that the attempt to abandon entirely the use of all means of personal restraint is not sanctioned by the true interests of the insane."[1]
The name of the organization was changed in 1892 to The American Medico-Psychological Association to allow assistant physicians working in mental hospitals to become members.
In 1921, the name was changed to the present American Psychiatric Association. The APA emblem, dating to 1890, became more officially adopted from that year. It was a round medallion with a purported facial likeness of Benjamin Rush Benjamin Rush was a Founding Father of the United States. Rush lived in the state of Pennsylvania and was a physician, writer, educator, humanitarian and a Universalist, as well as the founder of Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania and 13 stars over his head to represent the 13 founders of the organization. The outer ring contains the words "American Psychiatric Association 1844." Rush's name and an M.D.[2] The Association was Incorporated Incorporation is the forming of a new corporation . The corporation may be a business, a non-profit organization, sports club or a government of a new city or town. This article focuses on the process of incorporation; see also corporation in the District of Columbia in 1927.
In 1948, APA formed a small task force to create a new standardized psychiatric classification system. This resulted in the 1952 publication of the first DSM The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders is published by the American Psychiatric Association and provides a common language and standard criteria for the classification of mental disorders. It is used in the United States and in varying degrees around the world, by clinicians, researchers, psychiatric drug regulation agencies,. In 1965 a new task force of 10 people developed DSM-II, published in 1968. DSM-III was published in 1980, after a larger process involving some 600 clinicians. The book was now 500 pages long, including many more disorders, and it sold nearly half a million copies. APA published a revised DSM-III-R in 1987 and DSM-IV in 1994, the latter selling nearly a million copies by the end of 2000. DSM-IV-TR with minor revisions was published in 2000. APA is currently developing and consulting on DSM-V The next edition of the American Psychiatric Association's (APA) Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM), commonly called DSM-5 (or, previously, DSM-V), is currently in consultation, planning and preparation. It is due for publication in May 2013 and will supersede the DSM-IV which was last revised in 2000. APA has an official, planned for 2012.
In the early 1970s, activists campaigned against the DSM classification of homosexuality as a mental disorder, protesting at APA offices and at annual meetings from 1970 to 1973. In 1973 the Board of Trustees voted to remove homosexuality as a disorder category from the DSM, a decision ratified by a majority (58%) of the general APA membership the following year. A category of "sexual orientation disturbance" was introduced in its place in 1974, and then replaced in the 1980 DSM-III with Ego-dystonic sexual orientation. That was removed in 1987. Nowadays the research and clinical literature demonstrate that same-sex sexual and romantic attractions, feelings, and behaviors are normal and positive variations of human sexuality and the longstanding consensus of the behavioral and social sciences and the health and mental health professions is that homosexuality per se is a normal and positive variation of human sexual orientation.[3][4]
In 2002 amidst increasing concern to differentiate themselves from clinical psychologists Clinical psychology is an integration of science, theory and clinical knowledge for the purpose of understanding, preventing, and relieving psychologically-based distress or dysfunction and to promote subjective well-being and personal development. Central to its practice are psychological assessment and psychotherapy, although clinical, the APA assembly membership voted against a proposed name change to the American Psychiatric Medical Association.[5]
Organization and Membership
APA is led by a President and a Board of Trustees with an Executive Committee.
APA reports [6] that its membership is comprised primarily of medical specialists who are qualified, or in the process of becoming qualified, as psychiatrists. The basic eligibility requirement is completion of a residency program in psychiatry accredited by the Residency Review Committee for Psychiatry of the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME), the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada (RCPS(C)), or the American Osteopathic Association (AOA). Applicants for membership must also hold a valid medical license (with the exception of medical students and residents) and provide one reference who is an APA member.
APA holds an annual conference attended by a US and international audience.
APA is made up of some 75 district associations throughout the US.[7]
Theoretical Position
APA can generally be considered to reflect mainstream, particularly US, psychiatry Psychiatry is the medical specialty devoted to the study and treatment of mental disorders—which include various affective, behavioural, cognitive and perceptual disorders. The term was first coined by the German physician Johann Christian Reil in 1808. It literally means the 'medical treatment of the mind' . A medical doctor specializing in. In the past it has been predominantly associated with psychodynamic The original concept of "psychodynamics" was developed by Sigmund Freud. Freud suggested that psychological processes are flows of psychological energy in a complex brain, establishing "psychodynamics" on the basis of psychological energy, which he referred to as libido approaches, or the approach exemplified by Adolf Meyer Adolf Meyer, M.D., LL.D., , was a Swiss psychiatrist who rose to prominence as the president of the American Psychiatric Association and was one of the most influential figures in psychiatry in the first half of the twentieth century. His focus on collecting detailed case histories on patients is the most prominent of his contributions; along with, but more recently has become more associated with a biomedical approach also known as biopsychiatry Biological psychiatry, or biopsychiatry is an approach to psychiatry that aims to understand mental disorder in terms of the biological function of the nervous system. It is interdisciplinary in its approach and draws on sciences such as neuroscience, psychopharmacology, biochemistry, genetics and physiology to investigate the biological bases of.
The DSM The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders is published by the American Psychiatric Association and provides a common language and standard criteria for the classification of mental disorders. It is used in the United States and in varying degrees around the world, by clinicians, researchers, psychiatric drug regulation agencies, is currently intended to be atheoretical, having moved away from psychodynamic theories to be more widely accepted, and is proposed to not be committed to a particular theorized etiology for mental disorders. The criteria for many of the mental disorders have been expanded and involve a checklist of so-called 'Feighner Criteria' to try and capture the varying sets of features which would be necessary to diagnose a particular disorder.
Publications and campaigns
APA position statements,[8] Psych.org and practice guidelines[9] and description of its core diagnostic manual the DSM [10] are published.
APA publishes several journals[11] focused on different areas of psychiatry, for example, academic, clinical practice, or news.
APA recently launched a health campaign[12] with a new PR approach[13]
Notable figures
- Adolf Meyer rose to prominence as the president of the American Psychiatric Association and was one of the most influential figures in psychiatry in the first half of the twentieth century.
- Robert Spitzer Dr. Robert L. Spitzer is a Professor of Psychiatry at Columbia University in New York City, United States and is on the research faculty of the Columbia University Center for Psychoanalytic Training and Research. He was chair of the task force of the third edition of the American Psychiatric Association's Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of was a key figure in the development of later editions of the DSM.
- Donald Ewen Cameron is best known for his MK-ULTRA Project MK-ULTRA, or MKULTRA, was the code name for a covert CIA interrogation research program, run by the Office of Scientific Intelligence. This official U.S. government program began in the early 1950s, continuing at least through the late 1960s, and it used United States citizens as its test subjects. The published evidence indicates that-related mind-control Mind control refers to a process in which a group or individual "systematically uses unethically manipulative methods to persuade others to conform to the wishes of the manipulator(s), often to the detriment of the person being manipulated". The term has been applied to any tactic, psychological or otherwise, which can be seen as and behavior modification Behavior modification is the use of empirically demonstrated behavior change techniques to improve behavior, such as altering an individual's behaviors and reactions to stimuli through positive and negative reinforcement of adaptive behavior and/or the reduction of maladaptive behavior through its "extinction", punishment and/or therapy research for the CIA The Central Intelligence Agency is a civilian intelligence agency of the United States government responsible for providing national security intelligence to senior United States policymakers. The CIA also engages in covert activities at the request of the President of the United States of America. Cameron was President of the APA in 1952-1953.
Controversies
Controversies have related to anti-psychiatry Anti-psychiatry is a term used to refer to a configuration of groups and theoretical constructs that emerged in the 1960s, and questioned the fundamental assumptions and practices of psychiatry, such as its claim that it achieves universal, scientific objectivity. Its igniting influences were Michel Foucault, R.D. Laing, Thomas Szasz and, in Italy, and disability rights Crime of apartheid · CERD · CEDAW · CDE · ILO C111 · ILO C100 · ILO C169 · Protocol No. 12 ECHR campaigners, who regularly protest at American Psychiatric Association offices or meetings. In 1971, members of the Gay Liberation Front organization sabotaged an APA conference in San Francisco. In 2003 activists from MindFreedom International MindFreedom International is an international coalition of over one hundred grassroots groups and thousands of individual members from fourteen nations. It was founded in 1988 to advocate against forced medication, medical restraints, and involuntary electroconvulsive therapy. Its stated mission is to protect the rights of people who have been staged a 21-day hunger strike, protesting at a perceived unjustified biomedical focus and challenging APA to provide evidence of the widespread claim that mental disorders are due to chemical imbalances in the brain. APA published a position statement in response[14] and the two organizations exchanged views on the evidence.
There was controversy when it emerged that US psychologists and psychiatrists were helping interrogators in Guantanamo Guantanamo Bay is a detainment facility of the United States located in Cuba. The facility is operated by Joint Task Force Guantánamo of the United States government since 2002 in Guantánamo Bay Naval Base, which is on the shore of Guantánamo Bay and other US facilities. The American Psychiatric Association released a policy statement that psychiatrists should not take a direct part in interrogation Interrogation or questioning is interviewing as commonly employed by officers of the police, military, and Intelligence agencies with the goal of extracting a confession or obtaining information. Subjects of interrogation are often the suspects, victims, or witnesses of a crime. Interrogation may involve a diverse array of techniques, ranging from of particular prisoners [15] but could "offer general advice on the possible medical and psychological effects of particular techniques and conditions of interrogation, and on other areas within their professional expertise."
After previous controversy over APA's classification of homosexuality as a mental illness, there is also controversy regarding the remaining category of "sexual disorder not otherwise specified" which can include a state of distress about one's sexual orientation, as well as the diagnosis of "gender identity disorder" or gender dysphoria.[16]
The APA president in 2005, Sharfstein, caused controversy when, although praising the pharmaceutical industry, he argued that American psychiatry had "allowed the biopsychosocial model to become the bio-bio-bio model" and accepted "kickbacks and bribes" from pharmaceutical companies leading to the over-use of medication and neglect of other approaches.[17] In 2008 APA became a focus of congressional investigations regarding the way that money from the pharmaceutical industry can shape the practices of nonprofit organizations that purport to be independent in their viewpoints and actions. The drug industry accounted in 2006 for about 30 percent of the association’s $62.5 million in financing, half through drug advertisements in its journals and meeting exhibits, and the other half sponsoring fellowships, conferences and industry symposiums at its annual meeting. APA is considering its response to increasingly intense scrutiny and questions about conflicts of interest.[18] The current APA president, Alan Schatzberg, has also come under fire after it came to light that he was principal investigator on a federal study into a drug being developed by Corcept Therapeutics, a company Schatzberg had himself set up and in which he had several millions of dollars’ worth of stock.[19]
See also
- American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology The American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology, Inc. sets the standards for training and certifying psychiatrists and neurologists in the United States, with the self-stated aim of promoting excellence in practice through its certification process. The ABPN is one of 24 member boards of the American Board of Medical Specialties (ABMS)
- American Group Psychotherapy Association The American Group Psychotherapy Association is a not-for-profit multi-disciplinary organization dedicated to enhancing the practice, theory and research of Group Psychotherapy
- American Journal of Psychiatry The American Journal of Psychiatry is the official journal of the American Psychiatric Association (APA), the 3rd (out of 94) psychiatric journal by impact factor, and the most widely read and cited psychiatric journal in the world. It covers topics on biological psychiatry, treatment innovations, and forensic, ethical, economic, and social issues
- American Psychoanalytic Association American Psychoanalytic Association is an association of psychoanalysts in the United States. It was founded in 1911, and forms part of the International Psychoanalytical Association
- American Psychological Association The American Psychological Association is the largest scientific and professional organization of psychologists in the U.S. and is the world's largest association of psychologists with around 152,000 members including scientists, educators, clinicians, consultants and students and has an annual budget of around $115m. The American Psychological
- Antipsychiatry Anti-psychiatry is a term used to refer to a configuration of groups and theoretical constructs that emerged in the 1960s, and questioned the fundamental assumptions and practices of psychiatry, such as its claim that it achieves universal, scientific objectivity. Its igniting influences were Michel Foucault, R.D. Laing, Thomas Szasz and, in Italy,
- Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders is published by the American Psychiatric Association and provides a common language and standard criteria for the classification of mental disorders. It is used in the United States and in varying degrees around the world, by clinicians, researchers, psychiatric drug regulation agencies,
- List of psychiatrists Individuals listed below are all physicians, and are board certified by the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology, or are members of the American Psychiatric Association, or the Royal College of Psychiatrists in the United Kingdom, or another professional medical psychiatric association in a different country
- Royal College of Psychiatrists The Royal College of Psychiatrists is the main professional organisation of psychiatrists in the United Kingdom, but now not the Republic of Ireland, responsible for representing psychiatrists, psychiatric research and providing high quality public information about mental health problems. The college provides advice to PMETB and Deanaries who are
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