DSM-5 Criticized for Financial Conflicts of Interest

APA Responds to DSM-5 Backlash

APA medical director and CEO Dr. James Scully insisted the DSM-5 development process "is the most open and transparent of any previous edition of the DSM."

"We wanted to include a wide variety of scientists and researchers with a range of expertise and viewpoints in the DSM-5 process. Excluding everyone with direct or indirect funding from the industry would unreasonably limit the participation of leading mental health experts in the DSM-5 development process," he said in a statement.

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Cosgrove said she believes there are plenty mental health professionals with no financial ties to drug companies. If necessary, experts with conflicts could still participate in the process as non-voting advisors, she said.

"My best hope would be for the APA to respond in a substantive way to the concerns we've raised," she said. "They have an opportunity here to make a correction that would give the appearance, if not the reality of developing a diagnostic instrument that's objective and has integrity."