Classification Systems (DSM-IV TR)

Question 1

Axis 1

Answer 1

Described major clinical syndromes or mental health disorders

Question 2

Axis 2

Answer 2

Symptoms related to personality disorders

Question 3

Axis 3

Answer 3

Medical conditions (brain damage, HIVP) used to explain issue

Question 4

Axis 4

Answer 4

Psychosocial and environmental problems that could be involved in onset or course of mental health disorder (unemployrment could trigger depression)

Question 5

Axis 5

Answer 5

Scale to assess global functioning of an individual
Clinicians use scale to assess how well an individual is able to go about normal activities
Functioning score given to individual to help with diagnosis and could also assess need for treatment and type of treatment

Question 6

Reliability strength

Answer 6

Brown (2001)
Tested reliability of DSM-IV diagnoses for anxiety and mood disorders and found them to be excellent

Question 7

CA of reliability

Answer 7

Still some disorder for which a reliable diagnosis is hard to obtain (PTSD has high degree of symptom overlap with other disorders so may be under diagnosed)

Question 8

Reliability weakness

Answer 8

Davidson and Neale (1994)
Found variable reliability rate for different disorders
92% for psychosexual but 54% for somato (physical) form disorders

Question 9

Validity strength

Answer 9

Lahey et al (2006)
Good predictive validity in relation to social and academic functioning over 6 year period for children diagnosed with ADHD

Question 10

Validity weakness

Answer 10

Andrew et al (1999)
How much DSM-IV agreed with ICD-10 (concurrent validity)
Found agreement on disorders (depression, anxiety and substance abuse) but other disorders (stress) had disagreement
Validity varies depending on disorder