Enhancing the clinical usefulness as a guide to mental disorders.

Representing improvements in cognitive neuroscience.

Representing the fluid nature and porous borders between disorders and categories of disorders.

1. Revisions must serve clinicians

2. Guided by research evidence

3. Try to maintain continuity

4. No a priori constraints placed on changes

Parallel the ICD

Eliminate vague disgnoses

clarify diagnoses

increase diagnostic accuracy

Eliminated multiaxial system

Chapter order change to represent related groups of disorders

Medicalized classification

NOS removed

Addition of Severity Scales

No Mood Disorder Grouping

Substance Disorder changed

A mental disorder is a syndrome characterized by clinically significant disturbance in an individual's cognition, emotion regulation, or behavior that reflects underlying mental functioning.

Mental disorders are usually associated with significant distress of disability in social, occupational, or other important activities.

severity scales

attention to suicide risk

acknowledgement of cultural impact on bxs.

realize transient responses (i.e. grief) are not necessarily considered dysfunctional

recognized diagnosis does not imply need for tx.

Prinicipal Diagnosis (the primary focus of treatment. If visit is medical, medical disorder must be listed first).

Remaining Diagnoses

Provisional Diagnosis - used in short term only

Subtypes and Specifiers