The flat out rejection of DSM-5 by National Institute of Mental Health is a sad moment for mental health and an unsafe one for our patients. The APA and NIMH are both letting us down, failing to be safe custodians for the mental health needs of our country.

The best protection against wild over-diagnosis is to ignore DSM-5. It is not official. It is not well done. It is not safe. Don't buy it. Don't use it. Don't teach it.

The exorbitant price for DSM-5 will be just another reason, were any needed, for buyers to abandon it.

The American Psychiatric Association has proven itself incompetent to produce a safe and scientifically sound diagnostic system. Psychiatric diagnosis has become too important in people's lives to be left in the hands of one small and insulated professional organization.

Is there a last-minute way for the DSM-5 to restore some of its lost credibility? A great deal of irrevocable damage has been done, but I have four simple suggestions that would help reduce the harm done by the DSM-5 and demonstrate that the APA has regained its integrity.

My best advice to clinicians, to the press, and to the general public -- be skeptical and don't follow DSM-5 blindly down a road likely to lead to massive over-diagnosis and harmful over-medication. Just ignore the 10 changes that make no sense.

The DSM-5 field trial fiasco and its attempted cover-up is more proof (if any were needed) that APA has lost its competence and credibility as custodian for DSM.

The petition to reform DSM 5 speaks with the powerful voice of more than 50 mental-health associations. It represents a significant percentage of the potential customers who eventually will have to decide whether or not DSM 5 is worth buying and using.

The APA offers a fait accompli that DSM-5 will be published in 2013 despite the poor Field Trial results, the petition requesting independent review from fifty-one mental health professional associations, the opposition from The Lancet and New England Journal of Medicine.

Psychiatric diagnosis has become too important to be left in the hands of a small, withering, cash-strapped, incompetent association that feels compelled to regard its bottom line as a higher priority than having a safe, scientifically sound, and widely accepted diagnostic system.

If a legendary figure like Bob Spitzer can correct his mistakes, surely the American Psychiatric Association can do the same -- for the sake of protecting our patients and keeping the mental health field united.