Diagnosing Psychiatric Conditions
Western Wyoming Community College
Tani Larsen
Over the years, there has been a lot of change to world of psychiatric diagnosis. The APA had a great influence of this. They defined and added categories to help better classify each specific psychiatric disease. This started in 1918 when the APA came out with the “Statistical Manual for the Use of Institutions for the Insane,” which classified 22 categories (Peele, 2008). Refining the categories mad a huge difference in the psychiatric world. This allowed for better and more specific treatment for patients.
In 1980, in DSM III, there was an increase in background information on each disorder. Including, diagnostic features, associated features, cultural and gender features, prevalence, course, familiar patterns, differential Dx. Having this information included made it easier for people to know more about the disorder. It provided all the information that on would want to know about a disorder all in one place (Peele, 2008).
From 1980 – 2012, only small changes were made. Changing a few words here and there, and redefining terms. However, in 2012, they outlined the values that should be held in place in diagnosing, which are;
A.…show more content… These two disorders are important to the diagnosis of children. They wanted to avoid using the diagnosis of bipolar disorder in children, so the disruptive mood dysregulation disorder is used for children up to age 18 (American Psychiatric Publishing, 2013). I think it is important to classify children under a different diagnosis even if they are showing the same symptoms. This is because, children go through stages and outgrow certain actions. So just because they acted a certain way as a kid, shouldn’t mean that they get stuck with the stigma of a certain disorder all their