Psychiatric Classification

The most important goals of psychiatric classifications like the Mental, Behavioral and Neurodevelopmental Disorders chapter in the World Health Organization’s International Classification of Diseases, Eleventh Revision (ICD-11) and the American Psychiatric Association’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders – Fifth Edition – Text Revision (DSM-5-TR) are to allow mental health practitioners and researchers to communicate more effectively with each other by establishing a convenient shorthand for describing the mental disorders that they see. as well as to facilitate the identification and management of mental disorders in clinical settings. This chapter begins by discussing the different approaches to classification (etiological vs. descriptive, symptom-based vs. syndrome based, categorical vs. dimensional). Because of our lack of knowledge about the underlying causes and pathophysiology of mental disorders, the ICD and DSM have adopted a descriptive syndrome-based categorical approach. The chapter then provides a historical overview of the classification systems that are the predecessors to ICD-11 and DSM-5-TR. The ICD-11 and DSM-5-TR classifications are then described in some detail, focusing both on the organizational structure of the diagnostic groupings as well as providing an overview of the various disorders contained within the diagnostic groupings. The chapter concludes with a look at the future of the ICD-11 and DSM-5-TR classifications in terms of what to expect regarding the next steps.