Categorizing Mental Health Disorders

What are the two systems used to classify psychological disorders?

• DSM

• ICD

What is the DSM?

• Stands for “Diagnostic and Statistical Manuel of Mental Disorders”

• Used in America

• Contains discriptions and symptoms of all mental disorders, alongside other diagnostic criteria like timescales, to correctly identify, diagnose, and treat these disorders

What is the ICD?

• Stands for “International Classification of the Causes of Disease and Death”

• Used worldwide

• Contains discriptions and symptoms of all mental disorders, alongside other diagnostic criteria like timescales, to correctly identify, diagnose, and treat these disorders

What has changed about these over time?

• All disorders have been scientifically proven as a disorder (e.g homosexuality was included 1950s-1990s)

• Symptoms must now cause “clinically significant distress or impairment” (affect daily life)

• Symptoms must be shown for certain amount of time (“duration threshold”)

• There is now a step-by-step process that is used to identify the difference between conditions (“differential diagnosis”)

What is the process for differential diagnosis?

1. Rule out faking of symptoms

2. Rule out substances

3. Rule out physical medical conditions

4. Are the symptoms “causing a clinically significant level of distress or impairment”?

What are the strengths of the DSM (validity/reliability)?

• New editions have made efforts to improve reliability using explicit criteria, standardized guidelines, and structured interviews

• Greater emphasis on cultural considerations

What are the weaknesses of the DSM (validity/reliability)?

• Reduced reliability due to different interpretations of diagnostic criteria

• Low validity due to issues with cultural bias as diagnostic criteria is based on Western beliefs and behavior