DSM & ICD

Question 1

AO1/Description

Answer 1

• Created by APA in USA in the 1950s
• Contains diagnostic criteria for all the different illnesses
• i.e. Depression must show 5 of 9 items from the list of symptoms for a two week period i.e. low mood, changes in sleep, loss of enjoyment in activities, thoughts of suicide
• Includes things like prevalence for each illness, likely co-morbid illnesses, differential diagnosis between it and similar illnesses
• Illnesses are grouped by family i.e. psychotic illness, affective etc
• Updated every few years to reflect new understanding of the illness

Question 2

AO1/Description- DSM IV

Answer 2

Uses the axis system to diagnose:
Axis 1: Clinical disorders
Axis 2: Personality disorders and mental ‘retardation’
Axis 3: Medical issues which might influence their illness
Axis 4: psychosocial and environmental factors affecting the person
Axis 5: Global Assessment of Functioning (1-100)

Question 3

AO1/Description- DSM V

Answer 3

• Changes include removing the 5 types of Schizophrenia
• Removing the axis system
• Removing the clause for bereavement in Depression
• Combining Aspergers with Autism

Question 4

AO1/Description- ICD

Answer 4

• Worldwide
• All illnesses (not just mental health)
• Created by World Health Organisation (WHO)
• All mental illnesses are in section V
• Updated regularly (originally 1948)- ICD-10
• Has lists of criteria similar to the DSM to enable reliable diagnosis of illnesses (though they do vary from the DSM in some cases e.g. duration needed before you can be classed as Schizophrenic)
• More commonly used than the DSM (Reed- 70% use ICD)
• Cross-cultural illnesses and culturally bound syndromes included
• For each illness it has things like incidence (when), prevalence (how frequent) mortality (deaths) and morbidity (illness rate)

Question 5

AO3- Goldstein (1988)

Answer 5

found that 169 of the 199 patients diagnosed according to DSM-II as having some form of schizophrenia met the DSM-III criteria too, so reliability was seen as good with the DSM. Of the patients assessed by the clinical experts as well, she found high levels of inter-rater reliability.

Question 6

AO3- Kirk and Kutchins (1992)

Answer 6

In a review paper, Kirk and Kutchins argued that methodological problems with studies conducted to test the reliability of the DSM up until 1992 had limited the generalisability of their findings. For example, they argued that there had been insufficient training and supervision of interviewers, and studies tended to take place in specialised research settings, and so could lack validity as well as reliability.

Question 7

AO3- Jakobsen et al (2005)

Answer 7

completed a random sample of Danish patients with schizophrenia. An ICD-10 diagnosis showed 93% sensitivity and 87% predictive value when diagnosing schizophrenia

Question 8

AO3- Lee (2006)

Answer 8

ADHD in Korea Lee looked for concurrent validity by comparing the DSM-IV-TR criteria with criteria arising from the questionnaire, and compared DSM behavioural and psychological characteristics with those found in an ADHD test.

Question 9

AO3- Ford & Widiger

Answer 9

males and females diagnosed differently with same symptoms- lowers validity (doctor bias)

Question 10

AO3- Rosenhan

Answer 10

shows DSM reliable

shows patients lying can fool DSM lowering validity

Question 11

AO3- Updated

Answer 11

improves validity

may hinder the reliability of the diagnosis

Question 12

AO3- Useful

Answer 12

entitles people to medical help etc

Question 13

AO3- Standardised symptoms-

Answer 13

improves reliability

Differ from each other in some cases