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Introduction Why have we on this occasion chosen this particular topic? At first glance it does not seem too interesting, as among psychiatrists, clinical psychopharmacologists and other highly ranged scientists who work with molecular biology, there appears to be a firm conviction that the introduction of DSM-III (1) in 1980 presented a major innovation in clinical psychiatry, which put an end to the insecurity and disagreement found before 1980 regarding the diagnostics and classifications of depressive disorders. It is correct that the introduction of DSM-III was a paradigmatic change from nosological to syndromatical diagnostics and classifications. It is also correct that the previous classifications of depressive disorders were based on prototypical descriptions of the illness with unknown, but presumed aetiologies, with ill-defined boundaries and low reliability, which was suggested to impede the quality of research and of clinical psychiatry (2). In this context, DSM-III introduced a purely descriptive non-aetiological classification with operationally defined categories based on diagnostic criteria with proven high reliability.

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2004-12-15   |   860 visitas   |   Evalua este artículo 0 valoraciones

Vol. 27 Núm.5. Septiembre-Octubre 2004 Pags. 1-7 Salud Ment 2004; 27(5)