Will new DSM result in overmedication of grieving people?

    The new edition of the DSM, the diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders, is coming out this year. It changes the way depression is diagnosed after grief.

    Until now, the so-called “bereavement exclusion” exempted grieving people from diagnoses of depression for two months after a death, unless their symptoms were self-destructive.

    This exclusion will be taken out – so depression could be more easily diagnosed shortly after a death.

    In their weekly conversation, WHYY’s behavioral health reporter Maiken Scott and psychologist Dan Gottlieb discuss what this will mean.

    • WHYY thanks our sponsors — become a WHYY sponsor

    WHYY is your source for fact-based, in-depth journalism and information. As a nonprofit organization, we rely on financial support from readers like you. Please give today.

    Want a digest of WHYY’s programs, events & stories? Sign up for our weekly newsletter.

    Together we can reach 100% of WHYY’s fiscal year goal