Diagnostic Criteria From Dsm-IV-Tr, Book Review Example

“Diagnostic Criteria from DSM-IV-TR” by American Psychiatric Association (APA) is a great addition for any professional or student related to mental health field. The APA provides this edition only to indicate the most critical information required to make a diagnosis. The book removes some information related to background of every disorder, for instance course of the disorder, occurrence, and symptoms on different diagnosis in order to be specific and precise.

The book provides that he DSM-IV is a system which is of categorical classification nature. These categories are considered as prototypes through which a patient with a close prototype approximation is believed to consist on that disorder. The book also reveals that, “there is no such hypothesis concerned to all mental disorder categories is an entirely separate entity from exact boundaries…” but different non-criterion and in low-grade symptoms are not being considered of important type. Professionals occasionally used for instance moderate, mild, or severe types of a disorder. Approximately for half of the disorders, symptoms need to be enough to cause considerable distress clinically or destruction in occupational, social and other significant functioning areas, even though DSM-IV-TR  get rid of this distress condition from disorders named as tic and number of the paraphilias. All categories of disorders have a code which is of numeric type stretched from the coding system of ICD, practiced for administrative purposes health service.

The book presented that it is created for the federal governmental mandates completion; the people who use it in the absence of proper training can results into application of contents improperly. Proper exercise of the diagnostic standards is believed to need extensive clinical training, and no one can apply its contents simply like as in cookbook. The American Psychiatric Association (APA) noticed that diagnostic tags are principally for use as easy and flexible shorthand between the students and professionals. The book also provided that common person must discuss the DSM just to reap information not only for the diagnoses practice, and in this regard those people who may have been suffering from mental disorder must be guided  for psychological treatment and counseling. In addition to this, a shared label or diagnosis can have various causes or need treatments of different nature; because of this reason the DSM-IV TR does not include information concerning to the cause or treatment. The different type of the DSM stands for a wide-ranging scope of psychological and psychiatric conditions or issues related to it, and it is not explicit and clear to what may be believed as illnesses.

However, the DSM-IV TR is a significant technique, it is also central to take notice that only those people who have got particular and extensive training and have adequate experience are competent to treat and diagnose mental disorders. Professionals also exercise the DMS-IV to categorize patients for the purposes of billing, since number of insurance companies and the government jobs need a particular diagnosis in order to authorize treatment payment.

This version of book also asserted from the viewpoint of medicalization and drug companies that the methods to classify the DSM are well structured, in addition to the considerable expansion of the most of the categories, are worked as an agent for mounting human nature of medicalization that may be certified for mongering of disease by psychiatrists and drug companies, whose power has severely developing in current years. For the author who defined and selected the psychiatric disorders of DSM-IV, most of them had monetary relationships with the companies in pharmaceutical industry at the same time, identifying the scene of conflict of interest directly.

The DSM-IV has fascinated criticism and controversy and in addition to the praises. Some opponents contend that the DSM-IV symbolize a system which is an unscientific and that protects the viewpoints of a few influential psychiatrists. The book reveals that there is political and scientific controversy concerning to the constant enclosure of diagnoses related to the sex for instance the sexual fetishes and low sex drive disorders. The opponent concerning to these and other notorious diagnoses labels usually refer to the DSM’s preceding homosexuality inclusion, and the American Psychiatric Association’s (APA) ultimate decision to get rid of it, as a model for present disputes. The agreement however from the both the American Psychological or Psychiatric Association, and other organization in other territories, is that the clinical and research literature reveal that romantic and homosexual feelings, attractions, and attitudes are positive and normal distinction of sexuality in human.

The book provided that the disagreement over exclusion and inclusion may highlight the reality that reassessment of such disorders that are controversial can be considered as a scientific in addition to political decision. The book accepted that an important reason that particular labels of diagnoses cannot be taken away from the DSM and the reason behind is that it could be a disaster of public relations for psychiatry.