The DSM, or the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, is an extremely important and influential reference work used by professionals in the field of mental health.
It is consulted by psychiatrists and other physicians, psychologists, psychotherapists, social workers, counselors, and others who work in health care, and it has several purposes.
The DSM Provides a Collective Classification of Mental Disorders
As a reference work, all people working in the field of mental health can consult the DSM regardless of their own theories about psychology or regardless of the schools of thought they were educated in, because the DSM is arranged so as to not reflect the view of any one scholarly tradition regarding the cause of mental disorders. This biopsychosocial model means that the DSM is atheoretical, and therefore useful to the entire field of mental health care.
The DSM Provides Criteria for Diagnosis
Well, sort of. Because there are no biomarkers in psychiatry (meaning no objective tests to determine if a patient has a particular health problem, the way an X-ray can confirm a broken bone), the DSM provides symptom-based diagnostic categories, or "criteria sets with defining features" in order to help diagnose everything from hypochondria to Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder and more. It is often explained by saying that the DSM uses a "phenomenological approach", which means that it provides criteria that can be gained through externally observable phenomena.
The DSM Establishes Numerical Codes for Record Keeping
In order for patients to have accurate records that can be understood by mental health professionals almost anywhere the patient goes, the DSM creates numerical codes for each disorder established in the book. With all professionals working off the same reference book, determining a patient's history from his or her records using these codes allows providers to communicate accurately without actually having to communicate directly.
The DSM's Stated Purposes
In addition to the three purposes listed above, the DSM also has three of its own "stated purposes", which are:
- To be "a helpful guide to clinical practice"
- To "facilitate research and improve communication among clinicians and researchers"
- To function as "an educational tool for teaching psychopathology"
The DSM-I was first printed in 1952. It was followed by a massive revision and the publication of the DSM-II in 1968. The third version, the DSM-III, arrived in 1980, the DSM-IV in 1994 (with a revised version published in 2000 called the DSM-IV-TR), and the most recent version was published in May of 2013. However, instead of using Roman numerals, the latest version is known as the DSM-5.
