Misunderstandings of ‘Diagnosis’

Abstract

The International Classification of Diseases (ICD) Chapter V and the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) make use of use two key words. The former is entitled the ‘International Classification of Diseases’ and the latter, the ‘Diagnostic and Statistical Manual’. Within, the text of each makes use of classification and diagnosis as if they were interchangeable terms. Under careful scrutiny ‘classification’ and ‘diagnosis’ are found to mean different things, even though their uses often overlap in medical circles. Many of the difficulties and frustrations associated with psychiatry can be attributed to misunderstandings that originate in failures to be clear, in the clinic, whether a condition is being ‘classified’ or is being ‘diagnosed’.