Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorder

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Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorder
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Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorder
Introduction
Diagnostic and Standard Manual Disorder is a manual that is recognized and published
containing a compendium of various psychological disorders and listing the diagnostic criteria
that should be used to diagnose them. how they are organized and their classification (Bovin,
et.al 2016 p.1379). Generally, the DSM contains a list of psychological symptoms, then it
identifies them by categories that have a basis the opinion of how the psychology disorder should
be viewed, therefore it is mostly focused on describing the symptoms of an individual and data
of the gender in the most risk of the illness, age , effects of the treatment and the common
treatment strategies. (Cooper, 2017 p.668). According to DSM-4 there the DSM-4 was divided
into five parts referred to as axis. Each part of the axis has a different aspect of diagnosis.
However, after DSM-5 it was then concluded that there should be no scientific basis of dividing
the mental disorders in this way and hence another non-axis was improvised which contained
Axes I, II and III.
Part 1
Axis 1. Clinical syndrome.
This type of axis Majored on the clinical symptoms that caused impairment. The disorders were
in different categories like mood disorders, anxiety or eating disorders. Any mental disorders
other than personal disorders or mental Retardation would be in this category (Oldham, 2018 p
86). Disorders under clinical disorders included dementia, schizophrenia, substance use disorder,
delirium, sexual and psychotic disorders
Axis II. Personal and Mental Retardation

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This type of axis discussed the long term problems that were not considered in the AXIS 1
Personal Disorders were the cause of various problems on how a patient would relate to the
world such as antisocial personality disorders, and historical personal disorders. On mental
retardation, it was characterized by the impairment and deficits in areas such as self-care and
personal skills (Schroeder, et.al 2018.)example of such conditions were Antisocial Personality
Disorder and Schizoid Personality Disorder
Axis III: Medical Conditions
These included physical and medical conditions that influence or worsen Axis 1 and Axis II
disorders. Some examples include HIV/AIDS and brain injuries. Axis III provided any medical
condition that was present that could affect patient mental disorder or management.
Axis IV Psychosocial and Environmental Problems
This section DSM discusses both the environmental and the social factors that affect Axis I and
Axis II. They related to unemployment, education, housing, economic.
Axis V Global Assessment of Functioning
This part was where the clinicians were able to rate the overall functioning of an individual based
on the assessment the health practitioners easily understood how the axis interacted and how they
affected the life of an individual.
Assessment

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A diagnostic assessment is very essential in determining a person able to be provided with
mental health service. The diagnostic reports give an evaluation of an individual’s mental health.
The Assessment Process
During the assessment, the health practitioner does just a brief of a health checkup, but in case an
individual shows symptoms of mental health problems, then the doctor has to do a complete
assessment or the patient is taken to a psychiatrist. The doctor may as well take the patient
through an interview (Zapf, et.al 2018 p.1). During the interview, the doctor questions the patient
on experienced symptoms, how the patient feels and the concerns. Then the doctor takes the
patient to a physical examination, where the patient is questioned on her health history if there is
a family history of mental illness. The objective of physical examination is to avoid physical
causes for a current mental health issue (Preskorn, 2016 p.308.). Thereon the doctor takes the
patient for a lab test either for a blood test or a urine test. Which is very important as there may
be suspected body complication which might be the cause such as anemia or B12 deficiency. For
a nervous system test computed tomography may be used. Finally, the practitioner may take the
patient through a written or a verbal test where the patient is expected to answer them out loud or
on a given piece of paper which are usually yes or no questions. These questions are relevant in
diagnosing the mental health of the patient as they are used to determine how well the patient can
reason, remember, (Loewentha, et.al 2018) the ability to take some routine tasks like dressing or
washing. Besides, the test will help the doctor detect some specific problems such as depression,
stress or anxiety.