DSM-IV-TR
DSM-IV-TR
Psychiatrists and clinicians use the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of mental disorders to establish psychiatric disorders. Published by APA (American Psychiatric Association), DSM-IV-TR assesses all types of mental health illnesses in children and adults (First & Pincus, 2004).. Notably, DSM-IV-TR is non-theoretical and centers on identifying statistics of the gender mostly affected by certain mental disorders, onset age, common treatments and their effects (First & Pincus, 2004). DSM-IV-TR identifies serious symptoms of divergent mental disorders. The original publication of DSM-IV was in 1994 and recorded over two hundred and fifty mental disorders. This version received the latest update in 2000 referred to as DSM-IV-TR (First & Pincus, 2004). According to Rutherford & Mathir (2004), DSM-IV-TR, which is the latest expression of the natural human penchant to categorize, comes from the colorful and long history of psychiatric classification. This latest version holds descriptions of each mental disorder. Psychiatrists and clinicians use DSM-IV-TR for better comprehension of a patient’s potential requirements besides using it as a diagnosis and assessment tool (First & Pincus, 2004). The tool helps psychiatrists and clinicians in making detailed assessment of a patient’s functional level given that mental disorders influences divergent areas of life.
Categorizing Psychological Disorders As It Is Done In the DSM-IV-TR
The DSM-IV-TR classification is an impartial summary that holds all diagnostic terms, codes, specifiers and subtypes (First & Pincus, 2004). It is an undersized accomplishment of condensations and as such, offers a convenient means for assessing the entire systems besides finding the most suitable diagnostic code and terminology (Rutherford & Mathir, 2004). The hardest portion of classification formatting underlined the specifiers and subtypes, which apply to diverse diagnosis without repeating them. However, the problem got its solution through placement of specifiers and subtypes at the beginning of the section (First & Pincus, 2004).
DSM-IV-TR follows the formality of using the categorical approach of diagnosis. This approach is useful in labeling conditions that hold sharp limitations. However, while using categorical model, individuals must acknowledge the limitations (Gotlib & Hammen, 2010). The diagnosis of personality disorders underlines the concerns with the categorical perspective used in DSM-IV-TR (Feldman, 2011). The definition of personality disorders indicates that these disorders depicts a continuous blueprint of inner experience and behavior that deviate from a person’s culture in affectivity, cognition, impulse control and interpersonal areas. For instance, over eighty criteria differentiate DSM-IV-TR personality disorders in the mentioned areas (Feldman, 2011).
The criteria defining these disorders are not mutually exclusive given that a person can show signs of more than one personality disorder (Gotlib & Hammen, 2010). It is usual for patients to depict sufficient symptoms to satisfy the required criteria for the diagnosis of severe personality disorders. Such overlie becomes a crucial concern given that no personality disorder holds diagnostic precedence over another disorder in DSM-IV-TR. The criterion does not differentiate one-personality disorders from another resulting to the clinical validity of DSM-IV-TR personality disorders remain questionable (Rutherford & Mathir, 2004). However, most categories of mental disorders get their definitions through the criteria that describe heterogeneous presentations (Feldman, 2011).
For instance, the criteria for significant depressive episode on one end of the continuum, unusually mild presentations that are barely distinguishable from normal sadness and on the hand of the continuum, some of the most critical conditions encountered in clinical practice. Two patient qualifying for diagnosis of serious depressive disorder can be in many significant ways be much more dissimilar than alike (Rutherford & Mathir, 2004) are. Categorizing psychological disorders through DSM-IV-TR has some limitations. This is because some patients that come close bit do not fulfill the diagnostic criteria for specific psychological disorders.
Scientific Basis for the DSM-IV-TR
The principal objective of DSM-IV-TR was to uphold DSM-IV text currency besides correcting factual errors noted in DSM-IV (Feldman, 2011). DSM-IV-TR reflects changes limited to text, particularly changes in patient-centered speech. The diagnostic codes received changes in order to replicate (ICD-9-CM) International Classification of Diseases ninth edition, Clinical Modification coding system approved by the government of the United States (Gotlib & Hammen, 2010). DMS-IV-TR is useful and it represents a means of organizing psychiatric knowledge around 2000. The manual holds tools for generating new acquaintance that renders it obsolete (Feldman, 2011).
Differences between DSM-IV-TR and Earlier DSMs
The DSM published in APA offers general standards and language criteria for categorization of psychiatric disorders (Gotlib & Hammen, 2010). Researchers, psychiatrists and clinicians use DSM in different degrees. DSM-IV-TR is the present edition and holds five-part axis. The first axis entails clinical disorders, followed by personality and mental retardation in axis II. Axis III holds medical conditions while axis IV holds environmental and psychosocial problems while the five axes entails global assessment of functioning (Feldman, 2011). DSM-IV-TR is different from other editions in that it includes no significant substantive modifications from DSM-IV with respect to categories or their descriptions. Given that, the period between DSM-III-R and DSA-IV was brief, each group centered on revising diagnostic criteria as well as handling difficult controversies of significance to the diagnoses within its preview (Feldman, 2011). More so, DSM-IV-TR contains textual material defining different mental disorders.
Most Intriguing Disorder in the DSM-IV-TR
Depression encompasses states that range from emotional distress to hopelessness and melancholia (Gotlib & Hammen, 2010). Major depressive disorder is a group of linked symptoms some of which, such as sad mood, are criteria for the disorder while others, such as feeling discouraged, are not. With respect to DSM-IV-TR, a certain number of symptoms must be present for diagnosis (Gotlib & Hammen, 2010). Very different conditions can get similar diagnostic label of depression. The actuality that some signs of depression depict the disorder whereas others do not, then the idea of depression lies from a group of symptoms that scientist terms to be depression.
Depression is a construct that is a section of a wider class of psychosocial ideas. Should scientist decide that depression entails a divergent group of symptoms such as suicidal ideation, as opposed to sad mood; the temperament of depression would change. The qualities of people diagnosed with depression would also change leading to a change in epidemiological data on depression prevalence (Feldman, 2011). To diagnose serious depressive disorder, a client must show depressive mood for the most part of the day. A depressed person shows depressive signs almost every day, and a person without depression shows less depressive signs for the most part of the day. In this regard, DSM-IV-TR uses a dichotomous perspective to depression diagnosis rather than treat symptoms with different impacts.
References
First, M., & Pincus, H. (2004). DSM-IV-TR. New York: American Psychiatric Pub.
Gotlib, I., & Hammen, C. (2010). Handbook of depression, Second edition. London: Guilford Press.
Rutherford, R., & Mathir, S. (2004). Handbook of research in emotional and behavioral disorders. New York: Guilford Press
