Originally, a classifying system for mental disorders was needed. In the Census of the 1840s, the classification system was called “idiocy/insanity”! There were seven categories which included melancholia, mania, monomania,paresis,dipsomania, epilepsy and dementia.
In the early 1900s the American Psychiatric association and a National Commission on Mental Hygiene came up with the “Statistical Manual for the Use of Institutions for the Insane.
It was up to 22 diagnoses at that time.
In 1933, the Standard Classified Nomenclature of Disease (The Standard) was developed.This was a system for classifying disease in the order of nomenclature and etiology.
In 1952, the US Army and Navy developed the first order of the DSM in order to deal with “selection, processing and treatment of soldiers”. These agencies went away from the outdated clinical orientation of the Standard and toward modern concepts of psychiatry.
As a result, the DSM had its origins in “Medical 203”, a War Department Technical Bulletin.
Postwar,former military psychiatrists and the Veterans Administration began to use the system of the military early version of the DSM, which gained the acceptance of the community of psychiatrists and, under the auspices of the American Psychiatry Association, became the DSM I in 1952.
The DSM-I was almost the same as “Medical 203” and the number of disorders had climbed to 106.
In 1968, the DSM-II was published, with 182 disorders listed. Interestingly, the “disorder” of homosexuality was replaced with “sexual orientation disturbance” after the Gay and Lesbian communities successfully protested.
In 1980, the DSM-III was revised to be more consistent with the World Health Organization’s International Statistical Classification Of Diseases And Related Health Problems.
One person, Robert Spitzer, who was chairman of the revision team, was responsible for a much larger role in cleaning up widely criticized lack of standard diagnostic practice and pharmaceutical regulation between the US and internationally.
There were now 292 diagnoses.
In 1994, the DSM-IV came along, with 297 disorders. The DSM at this point had gone from about a hundred pages to 886 pages. At this stage, “clinically significant” as a criterion and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder were major changes.
In 2000, the DSM-IV-TR was published as a “Text Revision”. The simplest issues involved more information about each diagnosis and bringing the DSM more in line with the International Classification of Diseases.
The DSM-V has been in the works for ten years, with an expected publication date of May, 2013, and there is an “Official DSM-5 Development Website” with more information.
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More History of the DSM
