DSM-5 (R) Guidebook

DSM-5 Guidebook: The Essential Companion to the
Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition
is a user-friendly, supplementary guide for psychiatrists, psychologists,
and other mental health practitioners who need to know how DSM-5 differs
from its predecessor in terms of organizational structure, diagnostic
categories, and the criteria themselves. While it does not replace the
comprehensive and authoritative DSM-5, it illuminates its content by
teaching mental health professionals how to use the revised diagnostic
criteria and by providing a practical context for its clinical
use.

The book offers many valuable features, including:

* An
historical overview of the development of the DSM in general, and DSM-5 in
particular, a progression that might be said to mirror the evolution of
psychiatry as a whole. The material on the creation of DSM-5 includes
coverage of dimensional assessment, reliability and field trials, and the
controversies that arose during development of DSM-5.
* An indispensable
chapter on how to use DSM-5 that addresses coding, diagnostic certainty, the
demise of the multiaxial system, and the key changes to each diagnostic
category.
* Full coverage of the significant reorganization from
DSM-IV-TR to DSM-5, which is designed to incorporate advances in
neuroscience, brain imaging and genetics. Chapters were reordered to reflect
scientific advances in the understanding of psychiatric disorders, and the
presumed etiological and the pathophysiological relationships among
them.
* Extensive coverage of the decision to integrate dimensional
measures into DSM-5, which may enhance the clinician's ability to assess
symptom variation and severity and aid in patient evaluation, treatment
decisions, and outcome monitoring. The various measures are presented and
their use discussed.
* Finally, as the authors were not part of the
revision process, they offer a fresh, down-to-earth perspective that will
resonate with clinicians by focusing on the changes that will most
significantly impact clinicians' professional lives.

DSM-5
Guidebook provides a roadmap to the many changes in this living
document, DSM-5, and will prove invaluable to psychiatrists, psychologists,
psychiatric nurses, neurologists, social workers, and all who strive to
understand mental illness as it is conceived today.