Diagnostic categories

Reductions in aggressive behavior after treatment with amphetamine and other psyehomotor stimulants are seen in children and adolescents who have been diagnosed with hyperkinesis or attention deficit disorder. There is considerable disagreement about these diagnostic categories and about whether the violent outbursts and uncontrolled episodes of aggressive behavior are limited to the early developmental period or continue into adulthood (Mendelson et al. 1971 Minde et al. 1972). 

Markou, A., Kenny, P.J. Neuroadaptations to chronic exposure to drugs of abuse relevance to depressive symptomatology seen across psychiatric diagnostic categories. Neurotox. Res. 4 297, 2002. 

The process of classification in terms of each method of discrimination among diagnostic entities rests on two assumptions. First, the diagnostic entity or subtype is presumed to be a mental disorder. Second, the diagnostic entity is presumed to be discriminable from other mental disorders on some basis. Evaluation of this first assumption returns us to the earlier discussion of what constitutes a mental illness, so we do not need to consider this further. The second assumption raises a new question relevant to classification. Is this condition significantly unique from all other diagnostic categories An answer to this question should be empirically based, but the type of answer received may depend on the methods used to obtain the answer. Next, we consider different methods of classification. 

BOOTSTRAPPING STEPS TOWARD REFINING ASSESSMENT OF A DIAGNOSTIC CATEGORY... 

Also definitions on different stages of reduced bone quality has been made by the WHO study group diagnostic categories for different stages of the disease. 

Then they selected items that distinguished each diagnostic category. These became the basis for the final 550-item standardized form, still widely used by psychologists after almost 60 years. 

The following is a discussion of further immunopathology workup once a diagnostic category is established for a tumor. A few additional points need to... 

DSM-IV specifies a total of 12 anxiety disorders, but starts by defining panic attacks. Panic attacks are defined separately but are not considered as a separate diagnostic category because they may occur in many of the other anxiety disorders. Likewise, agoraphobia and panic disorder are not considered as specific anxiety diagnoses but rather their combination. In the following, a description of the clinical presentation will be given ... 

Social phobia also has a component of avoidance and has been successfully treated with the RlMAs brofaromine and moclobemide (Keck and McElroy 1997]. However, the SSRls and venlafaxine have also shown efficacy in social phobia (Gorman and Kent 1999 Keck and McElroy 1997], suggesting that further divisions of anxiety diagnostic categories may result from future pharmacological research. 

DSM-I (American Psychiatric Association 1952] contained 106 diagnoses DSM-II (American Psychiatric Association 1968] contained 182. In DSM-III-R (American Psychiatric Association 1987], 292 diagnostic categories were recorded. In DSM-IV, 13 categories have been added and 8 were deleted (J. Cooper 1995]. 

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