Essay on The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders

The DSM IV-TR, published by the American Psychiatric Association, is the authoritative book for clinicians, psychiatrists, therapists and other healthcare professionals who diagnose mental disorders. It lists the diagnostic criteria and features, differential diagnoses, course and prevalence of the disease. It is the go-t

This diversity in the professions that contribute to the criteria found in the DSM-5 can only assist in assuring the validity of the disorders presented within it. The disorders contained in the manual all have a series of specific requirements that an individual must

Before answering the question we need to understand what DSM-5 is it is shortened from Diagnostic and Statistical Manual Of mental Disorders and the five shows how much it has changed over the years. This classification wouldn’t be possible without Emil Krapelin who developed the first modern classification system for abnormal behavior which helped form the first DSM. The DSM-5 list approximately 400 mental disorders each one explains the criteria for diagnosing the disorder and key clinical features and sometimes describes features that are often times not related to the disorder. The classification is further explained by the back ground information such as: research finds, age, culture, gender trends, and each disorder’s prevalence, risk, course, complications predisposing factors, and family patterns. The DSM-5 is the only one of the editions that seeks both categorical and dimensional information as part of the diagnosis, rather than categorical information alone (Comer, 2013, pp.100). Now that we know what DSM-5 is we need to know what categorical information and dimensional information mean. Categorical information refers to the name of the disorder indicated by the patient’s symptoms. An example of this would be when a clinician must decide if a patient is showing

Antwone Fisher is a character who is very hostile and antisocial. He feels alone and confused by previous events that occurred during his childhood. Fisher is very withdrawn, unforgiving, and apprehensive. The constant battle of flashbacks denoting verbal, physical, and sexual abuse frequently interferes with his everyday life. The diagnostic criteria for post traumatic stress disorder explain the details of Antwone’s life in its entirety. Antwone meets the following criteria in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 5th edition: “Directly experiences a traumatic event, experiences extreme exposure to aversive details of the traumatic event, recurrent, involuntary distressive memories” (271).

The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) is currently the most frequently used way of standardizing and defining psychological disorders. However, the classification systems such as DSM have advantages and disadvantages. The major weakness of DSM is that it judges symptoms superficially and ignores other possible important factors. The major strength of DSM is that it enables categorization of psychological disorders.

Being able to form a diagnosis properly for a client is a process that is wide-ranging and broad. The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) (American Psychiatric Association [APA], 2013) supports recommendations and standards for identifying a diagnosis for a client. The procedure of diagnosing is more than skimming for symptoms in the DSM; one must assess, interview and identify issues, as well as refer to the DSM for a diagnosis.

The Diagnostic and Statistical manual of mental Disorders also known as the DSM is used was published by the American Psychiatric Association as a way to set standard criteria for diagnosis of the different mental health conditions. Social workers, mental health practitioner and even researchers in order to, use this book to help them diagnose client. The book is intended to be used to make an initial assessment of symptoms that a patient might be facing and after the assessment is done then the clinicians can go about finding interventions to help the client overcome their disorder.

Clinical social workers engage in a variety of professional tasks such as performing assessments, arranging and developing client services and serving as gatekeepers and treatment providers (Gibelman & Schervish, 1996). One further task faced by many clinical social workers involves utilizing the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM) as a guide in the formulation and identification of client distress, symptoms and disorders. While the DSM might become part of the clinician’s everyday life, it is not without its concerns, criticisms and debates regarding utility and accuracy of diagnoses. In fact, it has been suggested that use of the DSM contributes to concerns regarding the stigmatization of mental illness, label avoidance, blocked opportunities for clients, self-stigmatization and stereotyping (Corrigan, 2007). An additional concern emerges when considering clinical use of the DSM and situations of misdiagnosis of mental illness.

The overall message and core argument this book offers is that the new version of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, the DSM-5, will cause an enormous increase of people who are not mentally ill being diagnosed with a mental disorder and receiving unnecessary treatment for it. Allen Frances argues that assigning everyday problems to mental disorders causes massive disadvantages for individuals and society. Diagnosing a healthy person as mentally ill will lead to unnecessary, harmful medications, the constricting of horizons, misallocation of medical recourses, and wasting the budgets of families and the state. He states as well that we do not take responsibility for our own mental well-being. We do not trust our

In this week’s assigned reading the topic of abnormal psychology raises the issue of gender bias when mental disorders are being

The book is organized well for the reader to transition between topics and phrases, and it does not contain language that is specific to clinical providers. The author explains definitions and interprets his meanings of topics or words to the reader. The book provides references for historical mental health information and diagnoses, and insight into the author’s perceptions by describing observations and experiences. The author’s tone is elevated, as if in a personal dialectal debatable conversation, and can be perceived as a negative opinion towards the Diagnostic Statistical Manuel 5.

Diagnostic and statistical manual of Mental disorders (DSM): Standard classification of mental disorders used by mental health professionals in the US.

DSM-IV TR, which stands for Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (4th edition), Text Revision was published by the American Psychiatric Association in 2000 and serves as a guide book for many health professionals to diagnose a patient with a mental disorder. It also helps health professionals to determine what types of treatment could be carried out to help the patient. The latest DSM is widely used, especially in the USA and many European countries.1However, it may not be completely followed by health professionals as they know that there are some weaknesses of the latest version of DSM as well. This essay will discuss the strengths and

According to the fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5), the compelling feature of substance use disorders is that the grouping of psychological feature, physiological and activity manifestations in a person who often uses mood/mind-altering substances in spite of issues related to their use (American Psychiatric Association, 2013, p. 483). The DSM-5 identifies a very important characteristic proportionate to the severity of those disorders the underlying amendment in noesis that persists once detoxification leading to a detrimental sequence of actions such as relapse and cravings once the person is within the presence of feelings that are related to misusing drugs (American Psychiatrical

The classification system of mental health disorders is the foundation for diagnosis, assessment, intervention, and research. The necessity that this classification system provides a empirically-supported framework for the conceptualization of mental health disorders cannot be overstated. Currently, mental health fields around the world rely primarily on the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders 5th Edition (DSM-5; APA, 2013) and the International Classification of Diseases 10th Edition (ICD-10; WHO, 1992), with providers from Western countries like the United States relying almost exclusively on the DSM-5.