Penn’s Psychiatry chair is helping to reenvision how mental illness is diagnosed
Maria Oquendo is leading a task force to reimagine the future of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders.
2 min. read
As chair of psychiatry and the Ruth Meltzer Professor of Psychiatry at the Perelman School of Medicine, Maria Oquendo,has plenty of experience with the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM). So authoritative that it’s often described as a “bible” for psychiatry, the DSM serves as the mental health field’s definitive guide for the diagnosis of mental disorders.
Maria Oquendo is the Ruth Meltzer Professor of Psychiatry at the Perelman School of Medicine.
(Image: Courtesy of Penn Medicine News)
Oquendo, whose research focuses on suicide, uses the manual as a guide through the diagnostic process in her clinical work. But she saw a way to make the DSM even more precise. In 2013, Oquendo and several colleagues succeeded in getting suicidal behavior added as a standalone diagnosis to the appendix of the most recent edition, the DSM-5-TR. “It's a very laborious process because you need to basically write a thesis about why this is the right thing to do,” she says.
New research in the field of psychiatry, a greater understanding of how environmental factors and social determinants of health (such as economic security or a safe place to live) impact stress and mental health, and the possibilities presented by artificial intelligence, are all reasons why the American Psychiatric Association (APA)—which publishes the DSM—is considering whether there may be a better way to identify and classify mental illness.
In 2024, the organization appointed Oquendo to chair the committee tasked with reimagining what the next DSM could and should be. With a background as a thought leader in the field as well as a clinician and a researcher, Oquendo is well-suited to addressing big-picture concepts for reworking the manual, plus the ground-level details that matter to practitioners. In addition to her faculty roles at Penn, Oquendo in 2016 became the first Latina to serve as APA’s president; she is also a member of the National Academy of Medicine.
Oquendo stresses the importance of having a living, listening diagnostic manual, which adapts to new scientific findings and changes to meet the moment and the needs of those who use it. “It’s such an important project for the association and for the field,” she said. “We're at a watershed point. This is about the strategy for the next generation as opposed to sitting down and determining, OK, what are the criteria for this particular diagnosis going to be now?”
That’s why the Future of DSM Task Force has been asked to take a step back to look at the manual as a whole—what works, what doesn’t, and how can it be fundamentally improved? Is it time for more than incremental change in the diagnosis of mental illness?
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