Parental Alienation Disorder and DSM-V

Abstract

Although parental alienation disorder (PAD) is a serious mental condition affecting many children and their families, it is not an official diagnosis or even mentioned in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. This article presents arguments for considering PAD a diagnosis: PAD is a prototypical example of a relational disorder; the phenomenon of PAD is almost universally accepted by mental health professionals; PAD is a valid and reliable construct; adopting criteria for PAD will promote systematic research; adopting criteria will reduce the misuse of the concept of PAD; and adopting criteria will improve the treatment of children with this disorder.

Readers of this article may wish to express their opinions regarding this topic. Readers are invited to share their comments and suggestions with the author. Also, readers may want to send comments and suggestions to the Task Force and Work Groups of the American Psychiatric Association that are developing DSM-V. That can be done by accessing the DSM-V website, http://www.psych.org/dsmv.asp, and then clicking the button, “Make a Suggestion.”

The author thanks the following individuals for helpful suggestions: Wilfrid v. Boch-Galhau, M.D., Joseph Kenan, M.D., Joan Kinlan, M.D., Demosthenes Lorandos, Ph.D., J.D., S. Richard Sauber, Ph.D., Lena Hellblom Sjögren, Ph.D., Bela Sood, M.D., and James S. Walker, Ph.D.