Insel, Thomas; Transforming Diagnosis, Apr 29 2013
In a few weeks, the American Psychiatric Association will release its new edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-V).
The weakness is its lack of validity.
The DSM diagnoses are based on a consensus about clusters of clinical symptoms, not any objective laboratory measure.
Patients with mental disorders deserve better.
NIMH has launched the Research Domain Criteria (RDoC) project to transform diagnosis.
The diagnostic system has to be based on the emerging research data, not on the current symptom-based categories.