New Proposed Changes in the Upcoming DSM-V

Feb 10, 2010
The American Psychological Association’s (APA) DSM-5 Task Force has announced its proposed revisions and additions to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM), the text used by US mental health professionals to diagnose mental disorders. The revised version of the “Bible” of American Psychology is set to be published in 2013.

The task force describes a number of proposed changes related to “Sexual and Gender Identity Disorders.”

Significant proposed changes include:

Changing the name of “Gender Identity Disorder” to “Gender Incongruence,” in response to a survey of transgender people. The task force states that the name change is intended to reduce the stigmatization of transgender people’s “condition.” Additionally, what was previously referred to as “a strong and persistent cross-gender identification” is now being referred to as “a marked incongruence between one’s experienced/expressed gender and assigned gender.”

Within “Gender Incongruence (GI),” referring to “the other gender” instead of “the other sex.” The stated purpose of this change is two fold: (1) to be able to diagnose intersex people (people with “disorders of sex
development”) with GI; (2) to allow people who have successfully transitioned to be free of this diagnosis.

(Check out full proposed changes to the DSM-V here.)