The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) is the standard assessment handbook used by mental health clinicians in the United States and in many other countries to classify and diagnose mental disorders.

It is also used in education, research, and other purposes by government agencies, health insurance [Page 388]and pharmaceutical companies, and universities. The DSM is published by the American Psychiatric Association, and has developed alongside other classification systems of mental disorders, such as sections of the World Health Organization's International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health

Problems (ICD).

The DSM was first published in 1952 and has undergone several revisions since then: DSM-II in 1968; DSM-III in 1980 and 1987; and DSM-IV in 1994 and 2000. The ...