This week's guest blogger is @ArkhamAsylumDoc! She has a Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology and is a project scientist at a very nerdy university science lab. You can follow her on twitter for more geekery!

The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition (known to clinicians as the DSM-IV) is essentially psychiatry and psychology’s “big book” of illnesses. We refer to the manual when assessing and determining the condition(s) our patients may be suffering from. Publication of the fifth edition of the manual (DSM-5) is scheduled for May 2013, and is, according to the American Psychiatric Association, considered one of the "most anticipated events in the mental health field."

Why is this book so important? The manual lists and defines all psychiatric conditions that are recognized as valid illnesses by the field. Clinical scientists, medical doctors, and experienced experts in mental health are in charge of determining the criteria, constructs, and even the name of each disorder. The next edition will have substantial changes. What’s certainly made things interesting for this iteration is that the preliminary draft of the manual is now available for public review. This means we can all peruse the provisional diagnoses and proposed changes.

There are a number of conditions that are still under consideration, and thus remain on the chopping block. These illnesses have never before been published in the reference manual and many are not currently recognized as actual medical or mental health conditions. Using some familiar characters, I briefly describe and illustrate each proposed illness currently under the category of “Psychiatric Conditions Under Review.”

Complicated Grief Disorder—a prolonged state of grief, as if a person is “stuck” in their mourning. The patient suffers from unrelenting disbelief, loss, anguish, and bitterness for longer than 6 months following the death of a loved one. Symptoms include withdrawal from society, isolation, reckless behavior, and excessive cognitive distortions such as “this is my fault.”

Bruce Wayne

Apathy Syndrome—a chronic, debilitating state of indifference and the inability to care about consequences. The patient feels as though nothing matters. In other words: “meh.”

Dr. Manhattan

Male-to-Eunuch Gender Identity Disorder --- A rare condition in which a born-male believes he is neither male nor female, and therefore seeks castration to align his body with his brain’s conception of his correct gender identity.

Robin

Parental Alienation Disorder –When a child engages in recurrent and excessive belittlement, criticism, and denigration against a parent. Parental alienation usually occurs within child custody disputes, when one parent deliberately attempts to alienate a child from the other parent.

Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader

Seasonal Affective Disorder—SAD is known as episodic depression that occurs during fall and/or winter months. Symptoms of SAD tend to remit in the summer season. Patients who experience SAD have increased need for sleep (hypersomnia), increased appetite (carbs), difficulty concentrating, and withdrawal from loved ones.

The Grinch

Sensory Processing Disorder—A neurological condition characterized by an over-response to sensation such as touch, sight, or movement. Essentially, sensory signals in the body are not processed normally and simply do not get organized into appropriate responses. This is sometimes referred to a “traffic jam” in the neurological signals that are responsible for organizing our processing and responding to sensory information.

Rogue

Body Integrity Identity Disorder—a neurological condition characterized by the wish to experience the self as an amputee. Patients with this disorder typically have a strong desire to amputate one or more healthy limbs to achieve that end. If your brain works anything like mine, you simply need to find out why anyone would be compelled to mutilate themselves in this way. Read more from ABC News.

Arm Fall Off Boy--I know, right? Arm Fall Off Boy is a real character; I promise I didn't make him up!

Internet Addiction Disorder – Excessive computer use. The key word is excessive. For this to be a mental condition, a person’s overuse would have a significant interference with his or her functioning in other areas of their life—for instance, work, family, or other relationships. Internet Addiction Disorder (IAD) is characterized by excessive gaming, gambling, blogging, or shopping on the net. Can you—I mean—can a person with IAD be treated successfully? There is hope.

Neo