What is the DSM and what is it used for?
DSM stands for “Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders” and is published by the American Psychiatric Association, the professional organization representing United States psychiatrists. The DSM contains a listing of psychiatric disorders and their corresponding diagnostic codes. Each disorder included in the manual is accompanied by a set of diagnostic criteria and text containing information about the disorder, such as associated features, prevalence, familial patterns, age-, culture- and gender-specific features, and differential diagnosis. No information about treatment is included. The DSM is used by mental health professionals from a variety of disciplines and backgrounds in a wide range of settings, including clinical, research, administrative, and educational.
Diagnostic criteria provide a common language for clinical communication and their use has been shown to increase diagnostic agreement between clinicians. It is important to understand that the appropriate use of the diagnostic criteria requires clinical training and that they cannot be simply applied in a cookbook fashion.
Another important aspect of the DSM diagnostic system is that the diagnoses are described strictly in terms of patterns of symptoms that tend to cluster together. These symptoms can be observed by the clinician or reported by the patient or family members. Because it focuses on manifest symptoms clinicians from widely differing theoretical orientations can therefore use the DSM. Since the causes of most mental disorders are subject to ongoing scientific inquiry, the DSM avoids incorporating competing theories in its diagnostic definitions. This feature has been an important element in the widespread clinical acceptance of the DSM, and has allowed a wide scope of research investigation.
This is also an important limitation of the DSM system. Patients sharing the same diagnostic label do not necessarily have disturbances that share the same etiology nor would they necessarily respond to the same treatment. It is therefore critical to understand that the diagnostic terms and categories in the DSM represent only current knowledge about how symptoms cluster together. We fully expect that, over the coming decades, the DSM system will be radically reorganized as the etiologies of mental disorders become better understood.