[amandalouise]

in my recent past posts I have mentioned the words..... Supplemental Updates.

What is a Supplemental Update...

in .........general............ terms its when someone does a rewrite, revision, or edit to sections of their previously published work to clarify and add more details to the previously included material and to add new material to that previously published work.

people like me who keep journals and write things down do this all the time. Sometimes I make changes to my store list that sits on my fridge according to when Im going shopping and what I need at that moment. Sometimes I make edits to my journals to clarify or remove or add something that wasnt there the first time around.

Authors do this all the time when their books come up for reprinting. they make corrections, editing in and out parts of their book, add new clarifying pages / details and include new material that wasnt in the first printing.

here on Psych Central we do this all the time, any time we are editing our own posts to remove something or add clarifying information or add new information to our posts.

In terms of mental disorders periodically the American Psychiatric Association, (yes the company/ organization/ business / agency... what ever word your location uses thats responsible for the diagnostic book now used around the world) does surveys, publishes, distributes updates to their present publication of the DSM, in this case its the DSM 5.

They do this to correct any mistakes in the DSM 5, clarify the diagnostics, symptoms, definitions, Add new material and keep the DSM 5 in working order as things change in the time between new publications.

How this process works is treatment providers submit their experiences with using the DSM 5 and ICD 10 including things like problem areas, proposed improvements, possible changes, deletions, a whole bunch of stuff, those doing research on various mental disorders submit their research and proposals, ....

after the APA looks at the existing sections and whats been submitted they form surveys for people like treatment providers around the world to answer.

sometimes while the proposals are in Survey form they are marked in each one whether they are to use now or not, in other words whether treatment providers are required to start using the new material right now, begin using them at a certain date or wait.

The supplemental updates that treatment providers are required to start using are distributed by way of emails and newsletters to verified treatment providers.

in order to participate in the Supplemental Updating process there is a verification process for treatment providers, in other words someone cant just go submit and say they are a treatment provider they have to do the verification process because this is not open to the public in general.

Sometimes a Supplemental Update is open to the public but mostly its for professionals.

So thats what I mean when my posts here in the dissociative disorders board
mentions Supplemental Updates.

in the past 5 years since the DSM 5 and ICD 10 have been published, here have been many changes to them both with all kinds of mental disorders. Some to the diagnostic criteria, some to the definitions, Some to the symptoms, Some to external factors, Some to the internal factors... lots of new material.....

my point is when I am posting and mentioning the Supplemental updates that have applied to me and my problems, when someone is asking about dissociative disorders, it isnt to say someone isnt the way they are, or they dont have the problems that they have. Im just including the information that there have been changes that the poster may not be aware of.