Origins and History of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM)

1 Origins and History of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM) The DSM is the handbook healthcare professionals, particularly psychiatrists, use to guide the diagnosis of psychological health disorders (Crocq, 2022). It contains symptoms, explanations, and criteria that help practitioners diagnose neurological and mental health issues.

Further, the manual helps researchers and health specialists identify, define, and classify clinical disorders, especially mental health problems, thus improving research, diagnoses, and treatment (Cooper, 2018). The DSM provides a common language to help healthcare professionals document and share patient diagnoses following a successful evaluation.

Origin and History of the DSM The American Psychological Association produced the DSM in 1952 as a variant of the ICD-6. Previously, healthcare professionals had made numerous attempts to categorize psychopathology formally (Cooper, 2018). These efforts aimed to develop mental health policy to regulate mentally ill persons' diagnosis, treatment, and institutionalization. The creation of the DSM was triggered by the need to establish a uniform nosological system to eradicate the uncertainty surrounding the causes of psychopathology and clinicians’ contention that complex interactions between internal and external factors influenced abnormal behaviors (Crocq, 2022).

The continued widening of the perceived role of psychiatry led to the incorporation of mental health beyond mental facility boundaries, subsequently strengthening the need to devise a reliable classification system for mental health disorders.

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2 The APA first attempted to create the classification system in 1918. The APA efforts led to development of the “Statistical Manual for the Insane.” This manual was the predecessor of the DSM of mental disorders (Crocq, 2022). The APA developed several editions of the statistical manual during the interwar years. These editions provided a broader classification of psychopathologies. Unfortunately, they were of limited diagnostic utility. Over the years, the American Board of Psychiatry accepted the psychodynamic theory in clinical and academic arenas (Cooper, 2018). This development and the changing conceptualization of psychiatric disorders helped the APA committee create the new classification system. The committee released its first DSM edition in 1952 (Crocq, 2022). Since its inception, the classification system has undergone several developments to include numerous diagnostic categories entrenched in psychodynamic etiological descriptions (Cooper, 2018). The APA gives each version of the DSM Arabic and Roman numeric values to reflect incremental classification system updates.

Differences between DSM-IV and DSM-V The DSM-IV, reflecting the fourth edition of the classification system, was published in 1994. This edition was revised to the fifth edition in 2013 (SAMHSA, 2016). The DSM-V differs from the IV in many ways. For instance, it takes a lifespan perspective that recognizes the significance of age and development on the cause, onset, symptoms, and treatment of psychopathologies (SAMHSA, 2016).

Although the two editions categorize psychopathological conditions into classes, thereby facilitating the grouping of similar disorders, DSM-V excludes the multi-axial system, reorganizes the categorization of mental disorders, and changes the conceptualization of psychopathologies emanating from general medical conditions (SAMHSA, 2016).

Four classes were removed from DSM-IV during the revision, while six were added to DSM-V. Consequently, many disorders were reclassified (Murphy & Hallahan, 2016). For instance, all psychopathological conditions first diagnosed during infancy, childhood, and adolescence were eliminated and placed within other classes.

Conclusion The DSM handbook is a valuable tool that healthcare professionals use to guide the diagnosis of psychopathology. It was incepted in 1952 but has undergone numerous revisions to broaden the classification of psychopathology and facilitate diagnosis and treatment.

3 References Cooper, R. (2018). Diagnosing the DSM of mental disorders (5th ed.). Taylor & Francis.

Crocq, M. A. (2022). The history of GAD as a diagnostic category. Dialogues in clinical neuroscience. 107–116. https://doi.org/10.31887/DCNS.2017.19.2/macrocq Murphy, R., & Hallahan, B. (2016). Differences between DSM-IV and DSM-5 as applied to general adult psychiatry. Irish Journal of Psychological Medicine, 33(3), 135–141. http://doi:10.1017/ipm.2015.54 SAMHSA (2016). DSM-IV to DSM-5 changes: Overview. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK519711/ Shorter, E. (2022). The history of nosology and the rise of the DSM of mental disorders.

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