On the evening of June 6, 2013, Ken Zucker and Michael First opened AASECT's 44th Annual Conference with a presentation discussing the Psychosexual and Gender Identity Disorders sections of the DSM-5. Their presentation constituted a sort of DSM-5 road show; Dr. Zucker had presented on the DSM-5 Sexual and Gender Identity Disorders Work Group's process, and the DSM-5 changes earlier this year at the SSTAR Conference, and I'm sure other appearances in support of the new addition's release are planned. Their goal was to discuss some of the key changes between DSM-IVTR and -5, present the thinking behind them, and to respond to those outside the American Psychiatric Association who have been critical of the volume. The intent was to smooth adoption and implementation of the changes. One of the goals of the DSM is to standardize diagnosis and this was an efficient way to do that. The DSM-5 release had already been long delayed, and when the chair of the DSM-IVTR Working Group, Allen Frances, M.D., started criticizing the DSM-5 process in 2010, charging that the revisions would "medicalize normality," the psychiatry association had to respond.

Excerpt is from Dr. Stambaugh's blog The Elephant in the Hot Tub: Kink in Context [2]. To read the rest of this post, click here [3].

If you'd like to write about your own experiences at the Annual Conference, email Senior Editor and Writer Steph Auteri [4].