DSM-5 Publication Date Moved Back
The American Psychiatric Association revised the timeline for publishing the fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, moving the anticipated release date to May 2013.
The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) is the standard classification of mental disorders used by mental health professionals in the United States. It is intended to be applicable in a wide array of contexts and used by clinicians and researchers of many different orientations (e.g., biological, psychodynamic, cognitive, behavioral, interpersonal, family/systems).
The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition (DSM-IV) has been designed for use across clinical settings (inpatient, outpatient, partial hospital, consultation-liaison, clinic, private practice, and primary
care), with community populations. It can be used by a wide range of health and mental health professionals, including psychiatrists and other physicians, psychologists, social workers, nurses, occupational and rehabilitation therapists, and counselors. It is also a necessary tool for collecting and communicating accurate public health statistics.
Diagnostic criteria provide a common language for clinical communication and their use has been shown to increase diagnostic agreement between clinicians. It is important to understand that the appropriate use of the diagnostic criteria requires clinical training and that they cannot be simply applied in a cookbook fashion.
Another important aspect of the DSM diagnostic system is that the diagnoses are described strictly in terms of patterns of symptoms that tend to cluster together. These symptoms can be observed by the clinician or reported by the patient or family members. Because it focuses on manifest symptoms clinicians from widely differing theoretical orientations can therefore use the DSM. Since the causes of most mental disorders are subject to ongoing scientific inquiry, the DSM avoids incorporating competing theories in its diagnostic definitions. This feature has been an important element in the widespread clinical acceptance of the DSM, and has allowed a wide scope of research investigation.
This is also an important limitation of the DSM system. Patients sharing the same diagnostic label do not necessarily have disturbances that share the same etiology nor would they necessarily respond to the same treatment. It is therefore critical to understand that the diagnostic terms and categories in the DSM represent only current knowledge about how symptoms cluster together.
I find that the DSM has been too general in situations involving my clients and too specific and exclusionary in other situations. I, and experts I consuted, fully expect that, over the coming decades, the DSM system will be radically reorganized as the etiologies of mental disorders become better understood.
