DSM System

 Introduction

        

Apart from ICD system DSM is considered the standard system of classification of mental disorders. It is intended to be applicable in a wide variety of contexts and used by clinicians and researchers of many different orientations, for example; biological, psychodynamic, cognitive, behavioural, interpersonal, family/systems. It offers standard psychiatric diagnosis system evolved from the empirical evidence collected from various stake holders such as mental hospitals, neuroscience evidences and army health services.

 

Active Users of DSM

(i)       Clinical psychologists,

(ii)      Researchers,

(iii)     Psychiatrists,

(iv)     Psychiatric drug regulation agencies,

(v)      Health insurance companies,

(vi)     Pharmaceutical companies,

(vii)    The legal system, and

(viii) Policymakers.

 

Journey of DSM

DSM stands for Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders.

(i)       Published by American Psychiatrists Association.

(ii)      In 1917 Committee on Statistics (Now APA) in collaboration with National Commission on Mental Hygiene developed guidelines for mental hospitals and published as “Statistical Manual for the Use of Institutions for the Insane”.

(iii)     It was revised in 1943 and named as Medical 203 and contained 22 diagnoses.

(iv)     DSM–I came into existence in 1952 after WHO (1949) included a special section on Mental Disorders in ICD-6. It listed 106 mental disorders.

(v)      DSM–II is a revised edition of DSM-I, published in 1968 and contained 182 mental disorders and focused on biological perspective.

(vi)     DSM–III was published in 1983 which contained 265 diagnostic categories with new classification known as multiaxial classification (5 axes). It was comprehensive publication contained diagnostic criteria for each disorder and

other related information.

(vii)    DSM–III–R was the revised edition of DSM–III published in 1987. In this, categories were renamed, reorganized some were deleted and few others added. It contained 292 diagnoses.

(viii)   DSM-IV–TR was published in 2000. TR stands for Text Revision. In this manual the text sections giving extra information on each diagnosis were updated, as were some of the diagnostic codes in order to maintain consistency

with the ICD system.

(ix)     DSM–V was published in May 2013. It is based on explicit disorder criteria, which taken together constitute a “nomenclature” of mental disorders, along with an extensive explanatory text. DSM-V discarded the multiaxial system adopted by DSM-IV. Instead, it places mental disorders into categories.

 

DSM–V Categories

(i)       Anxiety disorders,

(ii)      Bipolar and related disorders,

(iii)     Depressive disorders,

(iv)     Feeding and eating disorders,

(v)      Obsessive-compulsive and related disorders, and

(vi)     Personality disorders

 

References:

1.       Verma, L. P. (1965). Psychiatry in ayurveda. Indian J Psychiatry.           1965;7:292.

2.       पांडेय, जगदानंद. (1956). असामान्य मनोविज्ञान. पटना: ग्रंथमाला प्रकाशन           कार्यालय।

3.       http://egyankosh.ac.in/bitstream/123456789/21119/1/Unit-2.pdf.

4.       https://icd.who.int/browse11/l-m/en.

 

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