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With the release of the latest edition of the mental health manual, Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5), Medical Daily examines some new additions to the list of mental disorders.
As the standard classification of mental disorders, DSM is used by mental health professionals in the United States - and much of the world - in order to reliably diagnose mental disorders. The handbook also provides a common language for professionals and researchers to communicate with one another.
Before the creation of DSM, there was little agreement on how mental disorders should be classified. In the United States, in what's considered the first official attempt to collect mental health information, the 1840 census noted the frequency of "idiocy/insanity." Forty years later, in 1880, seven categories of mental health had been created: mania, melancholia, monomania, paresis, dementia, dipsomania, and epilepsy.
Post-World War II, the World Health Organization (WHO) published its sixth edition of International Classification of Diseases (ICD), which included a mental disorders section. The ICD-6 received some tweaks, published in 1952 as the first edition of Diagnostic and Statistical Manual: Mental Disorders (DSM-I). Through the decades, DSM underwent additional revisions and corrections, resulting in the DSM-II, DSM-III, DSM-III-R, and DSM-IV, in order to compensate for new research and knowledge on mental disorders.
Mental health professionals and researchers in the United States refer to the DSM to diagnose a wide range of disorders, including behavioral, cognitive, and interpersonal ones, as well as to collect accurate public health statistics. The DSM includes three components: diagnostic classification, diagnostic criteria sets, and descriptive text.
The diagnostic classification is a list of the mental disorders to which mental health professionals can refer. Experts can make a patient diagnosis by selecting disorders from the list that best match signs and symptoms exhibited by a patient.
Diagnostic criteria sets indicate the symptoms that must be present in a patient, including the duration of these symptoms, along with the conditions that should not be present.
The American Psychiatric Association recruited experts in various areas of knowledge, including neuroscience, biology, genetics, and social and behavioral science to revise DSM for the fifth edition.
The goal of DSM-5 focuses on incorporating scientific advances in research and changes to disorders so that symptoms and behaviors of certain groups of people can be better diagnosed.
Click above to learn more about some new additions to the list of mental disorders.
Medical Daily examines updates to the DSM-5, the manual of mental health disorders. Evan89, Creative CommonsAccording to the American Psychiatric Association, hoarding is estimated to be exhibited by approximately two to five percent of the population and can result in significant distress to oneself and others. Characterized by the persistent struggle to discard possessions, hoarding disorder behavior usually results in harmful emotional, physical, and social consequences.
Creative Commons, CC BY 2.0Paraphilic (atypical sexual) disorders have been updated in the DSM-5 in order to draw a line between atypical human behavior and behavior that causes mental distress/serious threat to the psychological and physical well-being of others.
The newly-updated manual acknowledges that a paraphilic disorder diagnosis must include: personal distress about one’s sexual interest (not counting society’s disapproval), exhibiting sexual desire or behavior that involves another person’s distress, or behavior that involves unwilling persons. The chapter contains eight conditions, including fetishistic disorder, sexual masochism disorder, and voyeuristic disorder.Public DomainPosttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) received some changes in the newest version of DSM. Formerly listed as an anxiety disorder, PTSD will now be included in a chapter covering “Trauma-and-Stress-Related Disorders.” A PTSD diagnosis reflects a patient’s distress following exposure to a traumatic event – not the result of another medical condition – with DSM-5 providing a much clearer line about what represents a traumatic event. Additionally, DSM-5 will include two subtypes: PTSD in children age six or younger, and PTSD with prominent dissociative symptoms, including feeling detached from one’s own mind or experiencing distortions of real-world events.George Hodan, Public DomainExcoriation (skin-picking) disorder, characterized by recurrent picking of one’s skin, has been included in DSM-5. Individuals with the disorder must have attempted to stop the behavior, which, in turn, must have caused clinical distress – infections, skin lesions, or scarring. The symptoms also cannot be related to another mental disorder.Chelsea Gomez (Oakes), CC BY-NWhile it’s not exactly classified as a disorder in the main book yet, DSM-5 does recognize that the prevalence of online gaming seems to pose a preoccupation bordering on obsession for some individuals.
As such, DSM-5 includes internet gaming disorder in section III of the manual as a condition that requires further research. The condition excludes general Internet browsing, online gambling, or social media use. It is focused only on gamers who play compulsively – at the exclusion of other interests – and experience symptoms of withdrawal if kept from online gaming. Peter Anderson, CC BY 2.0Not to be confused with overeating, binge eating disorder is a rare but severe condition, associated with physical and psychological issues. Clinicians and researchers recently realized that a number of individuals with eating disorders didn’t necessarily fit neatly within the DSM-IV categories of anorexia and bulimia. Updating the former “eating disorder not specified,” the latest version of the DSM recognizes binge eating disorder as its own category, defining it by recurring episodes of consuming large quantities of food in a short period, followed by feelings of guilt, disgust, or lack of control.Life Mental Health, CC BY 2.0
