2. Diseases have existed as time immemorial and it is our
understanding of the diseases that has changed over
the time with advances
This evolution of our knowledge is reflected in our
classification systems.
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3. Syndrome Disease Disorder
Syndrome- is a constellation of symptoms that are
unique as a group.
May contain some symptoms that occur in other syndromes.
It is the particular combination of symptoms that makes the
syndrome specific
Etiology variable
Disease - is a condition with specific etio-
pathogenesis and has biomedical connotation.
Disorder- is term midway b/w the above two in
means of significance, consistency and correlates.
Cource , outcome and prognosis known.
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4. Concept of Classification
Every patient has three kind of characteristic:-
Universal, shared with all others
Shared with some but not others
Unique, shared with no others
Classification depends on B relative to A & C
It is the process by which the complexity of phenomenon is
reduced by arranging them into categories according to
some established criteria for certain purposes.
(kendel RE, criteria for assessing a classification in psychiatry ..west sussex, psychiatric
diagnosis and classification 2002)
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5. Purpose of Classification
Communication:- about the disorder, summarizing it
Control :- refers to treatment and prevention, ultimate
purpose of any classification.
Comprehension :- cause of disorder, process in their
development and maintenance. Desired as leads to more
effective control.
Comprehension is not served in the present systems due to
limitation of the understandings of the psychiatric
disorders.
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6. Importance of clearly defining a psychiatric
disorder
Influences the estimates of the psychiatric morbidity
burden on the community
Legal implication in criminal cases and disability
benefits
Lack of clarity leads to abuse of the diagnosis
Lack of clear definition leads to reduce confidence in
the discipline of psychiatry
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7. Ideally classification be based on knowledge of
etiology or path physiology – improves T/t and
prevention efforts.
Psychiatry – defined and classified mostly on the basis
of their clinical syndromes.
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8. Constituents for good classification
Reliability :- shows how far errors of measurement
have been excluded from assessment
Improved by- operational diagnostic criteria, structured
interviews
It establishes ceiling for validity
Validity :- how far a test measures actually, what it is
supposed to measure
Utility :- assessed by its impact on three domains :
use, decision making and clinical outcome.
Ease of use
Applicability across settings and cultures.
Meets need for various users : Clinicians, researchers
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9. Categorical v/s Dimensional
Psychiatric disorders traditionally classified categorically
Patients may not fit neatly into the available categories
Problem of comorbidities
Dimensional system solves problem assoc with boundaries
and comorbidity
But these not of great value in clinical practice, in terms of
decision for t/t and disorder meriting t/t
Pluralistic view- eg categorical for eating disorders etc
and dimensional for GAD, PTSD. (haslam et al, categorical v/s
dimensional model, 2003- Aust NZ J Psy)
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12. History
ICD - WHO
Used -Europe, Africa and Asia
1948 - ICD 6
ICD 7 1955
ICD 8 1965
ICD 9 1975
ICD 10 1992
ICD-11 2022
New Oxford Textbook of Psychiatry. Third Edition, Oxford University Press; 2020.
DSM-I by APA- 1952
DSM-II
1968
DSM-III
1980
DSM-IV
1994
DSM-IV TR
2000
DSM-5
2013
13. ICD 11
• 2007- International advisory
group
• 2015 - Beta draft available
publicly
• May 2019- 72nd WHA
• Implemented from 01 Jan 2022
• Chapter 06 Mental, Behavioural
or Neurodevelopmental
Disorders (MBND)
Gaebel W, Stricker J, Kerst A. Changes from ICD-10 to ICD-11 and future directions in
psychiatric classification Dialogues Clin Neurosci. 2020;22(1):7-15.
are unlikely to find single gene underpinnings for most mental disorders, which are
more likely to have polygenetic vulnerabilities interacting with epigenetic factors (that
switch genes on and off ) and environmental exposures to produce disorders.
Biological or social mark that sets a person apart from others, is discrediting and disrupts interactions with others
It is clear that a hierarchy was present that tended to suppress
the significance of lower-order symptoms in the syndrome definitions in order to
achieve such pure types. This hierarchical arrangement of disorders was implicit in the
Kraepelinean classification tradition of ranking organic mental disorders, nuclear
schizophrenia, manic-depressive illness, and neurotic illnesses from higher- to lowerorder
conditions (16). It was followed by an explicit statement of Jaspers: “The principle
of medical diagnosis is that all the disease-phenomena should be characterized within
a single diagnosis…in any one person”
we now have a plethora
of comorbidity—because patients do not usually have only mood, somatic, or anxiety
symptoms but tend to come with a mix from multiple symptom groups. Hence, we have
heterogeneous conditions within single diagnostic groups, a remarkably high rate in
specialty mental health settings of “not otherwise specified” (NOS) diagnoses that do
not quite fit the existing criteria, as well as high rates of “subsyndromal” mixed anxietymood-
somatic disorders in primary care settings
Korsakoff’s
syndrome illustrates the progression from symptom to syndrome to disease.
Initially, confabulation and impressibility among alcoholics were recognised
by Korsakoff as significant symptoms. Later the presence of disorientation
for time and place, euphoria, difficulty in registration, confabulation and
‘tram-line’ thinking were identified as key features of this syndrome. Finally,
the discovery that in the alcoholic amnestic syndrome there was always
severe damage to the mammillary bodies confirmed that Korsakoff ’s
psychosis (syndrome) is a true disease with a neuropathological basis.
Taxonomy is the metatheory of classification including systematic study of carious strategies of classification.
Classification is pointless in A and in C it is iimpossible.
Classical taxonomic strategy: Monothetic approach -The candidate must meet exactly the set of necessary and sufficient criteria that define a given class (e.g., periodic table of elements).
Numerical taxonomy: Polythetic approach - The candidate must meet a certain number of criteria to qualify for a diagnosis (e.g., diagnosis of schizophrenia in ICD-10 and DSM-IV).
Prototype matching procedure: Polythetic approach - Diagnosis is made according to how close a candidate meets a prototype.
Reliability- consistency of a set of measurements or of a measuring instrument, often used to describe a test. test retest, interrater
Internal consistency reliability, assesses the consistency of results across items within a test.
reliability is analogous to precision, while validity is analogous to accuracy.
Validity (well-founded and applicable; sound and to the point; against which no objection can fairly be brought)
Diagnostic validity is a complex multifaceted construct that has historically been adapted from the field of psychological testing and includes a number of different types of validity. These include the following:
1. Face validity
whether the description of a category and its diagnostic criteria seem to accurately describe the disorder.
2. Descriptive validity
whether the features of a category are unique to that category relative to other mental disorders.
3. Predictive validity
The extent to which having a diagnosis predicts future clinical course, complications, and treatment response.
4. External or construct validity
The extent to which the diagnosis correlates with expected external vali-dators, such as family history and neurobiological markers.
Robins and Guze (1970) were 1st to advance formal methods of determining validity of a diagnosis.
Clinical descriptions
Laboratory studies
Specification of exclusion criteria
Follow up studies
Family studies
Utility if it provides nontrivial information about prognosis and likely treatment outcomes, and/or testable propositions about biological and social correlates
Categorical- clear boundaries b/w entities or b/w disorder and the absence of them; widespread acceptance in psychiatry and other fields, and have generally been found to have improved inter-rater reliability
Dimensional – lack of clear demarcation. dimensions are better suited to the portrayal of variation in populations than day-to-day decisions about the treatment of individuals. difference in the discriminative power may be rather small.
Taxometric analysis -0 statistical method of examining wether the interrelationship among the defining feature of a disorder better fit a dim/catego model
Classifcatory systems in 18th and 19th century were mainly for fatal diseases and mortality statistics
Need was felt for morbidity statistics…assigned to WHO
Post world war 2, WHO was established as specialized agency of UN in health . All members agreed collecting mortality statistics on causes of death and morbidity statistics of known medical and mental disorders to develop comparable national and international health statistics- ICD 6 : mental disorders subsection
- Comprehensive classification of all “diseases and related health problems”
Although APA contributed in icd 6 mental disorders sub section, it published a separate DSM I based on views mental disorders as psychobiological reactions to critical life and dev events.
ICD 8 - 1965 : few-sentence descriptions, organic-functional dichotomy, psychotic-neurotic
While publishing ICD 8 WHO noted disparity btw diff national nomenclatures and lists of mental disorders throughout the world and appointed a british psychiatrist Erwin Stengel to look into it
His proposal of “operationalized definitions “ basd on observation tht could be reliably reported was not accepted in publishing ICD 8 nor DSM II in 1968 (based on psychoanalitical approach/theories of etiology)
But this was later considered in publication of DSM III in 1980
DSM III-
marked a paradigm shift from the psychoanalytical approach
Explicit diagnostic criteria based on descriptive approach
Introduced multi axial system
DSM IV-TR (text revision) -to make the diagnostic codes consistent with the ICD
Need was felt to bring greater international agreement on definitions and opeartionalised criteria fro mental disorders and this was implemented for ICD 10
WHA world Health Assembly
Advisory group- reviewed avlb evidence and proposed changes
Beta draft avlbl for review and comments
Additionally feedback from mental health professionals was obtained via field formative studies (global survey of psychiatrists attitude towards mental disorders classification- 4887 psychiatrists)
Changes from ICD-10 to ICD-11 include the introduction of new diagnoses, the refinement of diagnostic criteria of existing diagnoses, and notable steps in the direction of dimensionality for some diagnoses.
A classification therefore has only provisional value.
It is a fiction which will discharge its function if it proves to be the most apt for the time