DSM-III: rationale, basic concepts, and some differences from ICD-9.

This paper reviews the major innovations in approach to psychiatric diagnosis incorporated into DSM-III. These include the classification of mental disorders according to shared descriptive clinical features, the use of specified diagnostic criteria for making psychiatric diagnoses, and the multiaxial system of patient evaluation. It describes the principal revisions of diagnostic concepts in DSM-III from several areas of classification, such as Schizophrenia and Affective Disorders, that account for some of the differences between DSM-III and ICD-9. The rationale for the changes in approach and in basic diagnostic concepts at the time of DSM-III's publication is presented. More recent evidence concerning the validity of newly-conceptualized categories is also included.