Dsm-IV

In 1952, the American Psychiatric Association (APA) published its first official listing of mental diseases. Titled the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM), it was conceived as a way to establish a common diagnostic language and to increase inter-clinician reliability, which ranged from just over 20% to about 42%, depending on the study. Largely ignored when it first appeared, the initial [Page 162]DSM was a spiral-bound notebook with cursory descriptions of about 100 disorders, and it was sold primarily to mental institutions for a mere $3.50. The third edition, the DSM-III in 1980, and more recent updates–the DSM-III-R in 1987, DSM-IV in 1994, and DSM-IV-TR in 2000–have expanded to 900 pages in length and sold hundreds of thousands of copies at over $80 ...