Since its May release, the debate surrounding the DSM-5 has spread from specialist psychiatric journals into the pages of The Washington Post and The Economist. David Lynch reports

The fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5) will soon be sitting on the bookshelves of most psychiatric training colleges, wards and practices across the world. However, before most people had the opportunity to even open its first page, the manual produced by the American Psychiatric Association (APA) has been hailed by some and dismissed by others.

A number of new books criticising the DSM-5 - which details descriptions, symptoms, and other criteria for diagnosing mental disorders - have already been published, despite the fact that the new manual was only released in May (although many of the changes to the new edition had been flagged well in advance).

Officially launched at the American Psyciatric Association's (APA) annual conference in San Francisco, more than 120,000 copies of the manual were sold in the first few hours. There are not many other professional, medical manuals that would be found shooting up the Amazon book charts so quickly upon their release

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