diagnosis: classification and diagnosis of mental health disorders

Question 1

what is classification?

Answer 1

• involves taking sets of symptoms and putting them into categories (add more later)

Question 2

what is diagnosis?

Answer 2

• use of 4 Ds
• once we have a set of abnormal symptoms classified into disorders we can diagnose individuals according to their symptoms
• involves assessing a patient’s symptoms and deciding whether they meet the criteria for one or more mental disorders
• typically diagnosis requires that a certain number of symptoms are present for a particular period of time

Question 3

how can a person be diagnosed with schizophrenia with classification?

Answer 3

• DSM-IV states that their symptoms must significantly impair the ability to function in real world and the symptoms have to be present for at least six months

Question 4

what are the systems for classification and diagnosis?

Answer 4

• highly detailed
• classify abnormalities into many different disorders and give guidelines on how to diagnose them
• two most widely used systems are DSM and ICD
• original DSM was published in 1952
• since 2000 it is it its fourth edition with text revisions - DSM-IV-TR
• DSM-V was published in 2013
• ICD-10 was published in 1990 (new one due for publication 2018)

Question 5

why classify mental disorders?

Answer 5

• so that we can provide individuals with a correct diagnosis
• major reason to give people a diagnosis is so that we can target appropriate treatments and services towards them
• also spin-off benefits (write more)