Dimensional Approaches in Diagnostic Classification

Since its initial publication more than 50 years ago, the
DSM has systematized the complex intellectual and clinical process of
diagnosing mentally ill persons through the use of categories and
classification. The manuals have provided a consistent diagnostic language
for clinical work, research, and teaching; have established a common
international taxonomic standard; and have provided psychiatrists with a
means of communicating with patients and the public. With a new iteration of
the DSM on the horizon, the APA has initiated a multiphase research review
process designed to set the stage for the fifth revision, due to be
published in 2013.

This book brings together the most promising
research presented at the conference "The Future of Psychiatric Diagnosis:
Refining the Research Agenda," which was convened by the APA, in
collaboration with the World Health Organization and the U.S. National
Institutes of Health. Conferees were challenged to go beyond the current
categorical definitions set forth in DSM-III and DSM-IV and suggest ways of
incorporating more quantitative, dimensional concepts into DSM-V. The
resulting work:


* Addresses the challenge of creating dimensional measures that are
compatible with existing categorical definitions and do not unduly disrupt
clinical practice
* Applies a dimensional approach to a broad range of
diagnoses, including substance dependence, major depressive episode,
psychosis, anxiety disorders, developmental psychopathology, and personality
disorders
* Facilitates the development of broadly agreed upon criteria
that researchers worldwide can use in planning and conducting future
research exploring the etiology and pathophysiology of mental
disorders
* Identifies and encourages the empirical research necessary
to allow informed decision making regarding deficiencies acknowledged in
DSM-IV
* Promotes international collaboration with the objective of
eliminating the remaining disparities between DSM-V and the International
Classification of Diseases Mental and Behavioural Disorders Section, the
next edition of which is due to be released in 2014.

The book's
painstaking scholarship and thoughtful conclusions should stimulate interest
in finding new ways of combining categorical and dimensional approaches in
psychiatric nosology. Clinicians and researchers in the United States and
the international psychiatric community will discover, in these pages, the
beginnings of a new, quantitative methodology that represents the next stage
in the evolution of DSM.