Can Drinking Coffee Cause a Mental Disorder?

The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (the DSM), the DSM-5, lists caffeine intoxication among its many disorders, according to LiveScience.   

Now coffee drinkers may be at risk for developing a newly listed mental disorder.

According to the DSM-5, if you experience five or more symptoms such as red face, nervousness and restlessness shortly after drinking coffee, you may be diagnosed with coffee intoxication, a temporary mental disorder.

Other signs and symptoms of this disorder include muscle twitching, rambling speech, rapid and irregular heartbeat, excitement and gastrointestinal upset. In addition, to qualify as a disorder, the intoxication must cause distress or impair the drinker's ability to function.

The condition of caffeine intoxication appears in the old and new edition of the DSM-IV and the new DSM-5, but the newest version that was officially released on May 22 adds a related diagnosis of caffeine withdrawal. Symptoms of such withdrawal include headache, fatigue, difficulty concentrating and depressed mood, among others.

The DSM-5 notes that caffeine is the most widely used behaviorally active drug in the world, and some consumers are unaware that they are physically dependant on it.

"The symptoms of caffeine withdrawal are transitory, they take care of themselves," said Robin Rosenberg, a clinical psychologist and co-author of the psychology textbook "Abnormal Psychology" (Worth Publishers, 2009), according to LiveScience. "It's just a natural response to stopping caffeine, and it clears up on its own in short order." 

Rosenberg also said that the more long-standing diagnosis of caffeine intoxication describes a temporary state, and does not understand why either caffeine intoxication nor caffeine withdrawal is included in the DSM.

"Caffeine is invading our society more and more. So there's concern enough to consider this topic seriously, even though it's probably one of the more controversial issues faced by our work group," said Alan Budney, who served on the DSM-5 working group for substance-use disorders, to Medscape Medical News in 2011.

He said that caffeine withdrawal can effect sleeping patterns, work and other aspects of a person's life. 

Although everyone from athletes to morning commuters use caffeine as an energy booster and performance-enhancing substance, caffeine can prove fatal in rare cases when it is consumed in high enough doses. Between 2005 and 2009, emergency room visits associated with caffeinated energy drinks, often in combination with alcohol and other drugs, increased tenfold.

The DSM groups caffeine intoxication with other disorders associated with other drugs such as alcohol, nicotine, cannabis and hallucinogens, among others.