IS THE DSM ALWAYS RIGHT?

No. A very important thing to keep in mind is that the criteria that are used to define mental disorders in the DSM are based on a majority view of consultants and contributors in mental health care, many of which are psychiatrists and some of which are psychologists. However, a majority view is not always correct and the criteria used to diagnose mental disorders in one edition of the DSM are often changed in future editions. Also, some mental disorders have been completely removed from the DSM. For example, in 1973, homosexuality was removed from the DSM as a mental disorder.

WHAT ELSE IS IN THE DSM?

The DSM contains information about each mental disorder such as associated features of the disorder, what age the disorder usually begins, whether the disorder is more likely to occur in males or females, what types of impairments and complications are usually found in the disorder, what are risks for developing the disorder, what patterns are found in the families of people with the mental disorder, information on how to figure out the difference between similar mental disorders, the percent of people that have the disorder, and more.

HOW MANY MENTAL DISORDERS ARE IN THE DSM?

There are over 300 mental disorders listed in the DSM-IV TR.

WHAT ARE THOSE CODE NUMBERS IN THE DSM?

Each mental disorder and physical disorder listed in the DSM is identified with a specific number. This number matches those published by the World Health Organization's International Statistical Classification of Diseases & Related Health Problems . This is commonly abbreviated and referred to as ICD. The ICD is another classification system, used to classify mental and physical disorders. The most current version is ICD-10.

WHAT ABOUT EARLIER EDITIONS OF THE DSM?

The original DSM was published in 1952 as a way to encourage clinicians to use the same standards to diagnose mental illness and was partially based on the ICD-6 (6th edition). See the answer to the last question for a description of ICD. The original DSM contained definitions of all named mental disorders but did not list any criteria for diagnosing these disorders. The original DSM was influenced by the theories of Sigmund Freud, but the names of many of the mental disorders had the word "reaction" after them, a term used often by a psychologist named Adolf Meyer.

The DSM-II (2nd edition) was published in 1968. Freud's theories still influenced this edition, but the use of the term "reaction" was dropped for the names of the mental disorders. Freud's theories were no longer a major part of the DSM when the third edition (DSM-III) was published in 1980. The DSM-III was the first time that clear criteria were stated in the DSM for diagnosing mental disorders. The DSM-III also saw the introduction of the multi-axial classification system discussed above. Some clarifications and improvements were published in a revised version of the third edition (DSM-III-R), published in 1987.

The DSM-IV was published in May on 1994. The major change in this edition is that it renamed a category of mental disorders known as "Organic Mental Syndromes and Disorders" to "Delirium, Dementia, and Amnestic and Other Cognitive Disorders." This change was made so that people did not assume that disorders not listed in the category of "Organic Mental Syndromes and Disorders" were not due, at least in part, to abnormal functioning of the brain or some other parts of the body (which is what the word "organic" refers to).