Mental health professionals have been stuying disorders for decades. They write up their conclusions in a document called the DSM. Its 5th draft is due out any day now. Will Parental Alienation be included?

Some excerpts of their work were unveiled by the American Psychiatric Association last week, as a draft version of the new “Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders.”

Known as the DSM-5, because it represents the fifth edition of this exhaustive bible for psychiatrists, psychologists and others, it attempts to catalog everything from Complex Somatic Symptom Disorder (related to hypochondria) to Temper Dysregulation Disorder with Dysphoria (persistently very ill-behaving children).

The first update since 1994 also includes descriptions of depression, sleep disorders, alcohol abuse and other common maladies, but everything gets a fresh look because of the volume of new research and science affecting how they’re all regarded, said David Kupfer, the University of Pittsburgh psychiatry professor who chaired the DSM-5 task force.

The final product will go into the offices of all sorts of health professionals — from psychiatrists to family practitioners — while also influencing treatment payments by insurance companies, drug development by the pharmaceutical industry and future research by government and academia.

Dr. Kupfer, the longtime head of Pitt’s psychiatry department before stepping down in October, said the manual remains a work in progress, with revisions based on public and professional reaction before final publication in 2013.

“We weren’t out to make major changes, but so much has happened that we needed to address, that some may accuse us of being overambitious,” he said.

The Shadyside resident, 69, has been nationally noted for his work on depression at Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic. He headed a task force of some 160 international researchers and clinicians who worked on DSM-5, with 13 work groups covering various topic areas.

Among the pronouncements in the draft version:

• All forms of autism will fall under a single diagnostic category, called “autism spectrum disorders,” a concept that drew quick criticism from representatives of those with the Asperger’s form of autism, who are often high functioning.

• Gambling, identified as an “impulse control disorder” since 1980, will be moved into a “behavioral addiction” category that reflects its similarities to drug and alcohol addiction. Certain other addictions, such as excessive use of the Internet, were considered for the category but denied placement there because of insufficient research data.

• Binge eating is recognized as a disorder for the first time, similar to anorexia and bulimia.

• Mental retardation is to be relabeled as “intellectual disability.”

At www.dsm5.org, those interested can obtain detailed information about the draft manual recommendations and provide comments.