Diagnosing Psychological Disorders
Foundations in Classification
- Diagnostic classification
- Assignment to categories based on shared attributes or relations
- Classification is central to all sciences
- Idiographic strategy: what is unique about an individual’s personality, cultural background, or circumstances
- Nomothetic strategy: often used when identifying a specific psychological disorder, to make a diagnosis
- Terminology of classification systems
- Taxonomy: classification in a scientific context
- Nosology: taxonomy in psychological/medical phenomena
- Nomenclature: labels in a nosological
Issues with Classifying and Diagnosing Psychological Disorders
- Categorical and dimensional approaches
- Classical (or pure) categorical approach: strict categories
- Dimensional approach: classification along dimensions
- Prototypical approach: combines classical and dimensional views
- Widely used classification systems
- Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM)
- Updated every 10-20 years
- ICD-10
- International Classification of Diseases
- Published by the World Health Organization
History of the DSM
- Prior to 1980, diagnoses were made based on biological or psychoanalytic theory
- Introduction of DSM-III in 1980 revolutionized classification
- Classification now relied on specific lists of symptoms, improving reliability and validity
- Diagnoses classified along five “Axes” describing types of problems
- DSM-IV introduced in 1994
- Eliminated previous distinction between psychological vs organic mental disorders
- Reflected appreciation that all disorders are influenced by both psychological and biological factors
- DSM-IV-TR (“text revision” of DSM-IV) incorporated new research and slightly altered criteria accordingly
The DSM-5
- Basic characteristics
- Removed axial system
- Clear inclusion and exclusion criteria for disorders
- Disorders are categorized under broad headings
- Empirically-grounded, prototypic approach to classification
- Adding new diagnoses: new disorder labels are created when groups of individuals are identified whose symptoms are not adequately explained by existing labels
Unresolved Issues in DSM-5
- The problem of comorbidity
- Comorbidity: 2 or more disorders for the same person
- High comorbidity is extremely common
- Emphasizes reliability, maybe at the expense of validity
- Dimensional classification
- DSM was intended to move toward a more dimensional approach, but critics say it doesn’t improve much from DSM-V
- Labeling issues and stigmatization
- Some labels have negative connotations and may make patients less likely to seek treatment