TLAs like ASD, ADD, and DSM

One of the focuses of the DSM-V Neurodevelopmental Disorders Work Group is whether the mutual exclusion of ADD/ADHD and ASD should remain or be lifted. Currently a person can not, according strictly to the letter of the DSM, be diagnosed with both neurodevelopmental disorders at once. The neurodevelopmental group is working on possible re-definitions of autism spectrum disorders for the new version of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM).

Though the DSM may currently place some restrictions on which letters can go with which other letters, this article from Times Online asks the question, "Does having a clutch of acronyms after their names help or hinder children with multiple behaviour problems?" and then proceeds to discuss kids being diagnosed with multiple neurodevelopmental and/or psychological disorders from the DSM including the ASD/ADD dual diagnosis. The article raised some interesting (to me anyway) different ideas about where the sudden explosion of DSM diagnoses might be coming from, including some non-medical ones such as changing social and cultural norms and misdiagnoses based on not properly looking at lifestyle (e.g. difficulty concentrating because of lack of sufficient sleep).

I'm still pretty interested in the dynamic between culture defining medicine and medicine defining culture, especially when it comes to the DSM. That book has been a tool of both good (in getting people access to services they may need for survival) and great ill (e.g. the horrors done to homosexuals in the name of "treatment"), and the book is definitely not without strong criticism of its development and usefulness, even by the people who use it. The Times Online article talks about the destructive force of misdiagnosis, especially when a person is given medications for something they don't have.

How much power, unchecked, should the people who define items in the DSM be given? Do we give too much?