APA Board of Trustees Approves DSM-5

At its December meeting today, APA’s Board of Trustees approved the final diagnostic categories and criteria for the fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5). The trustees’ action marks the end of the manual’s comprehensive revision process, which has spanned over a decade and included contributions from more than 1,500 experts. These final diagnoses and descriptive criteria will be available when DSM-5 is completed and published in May 2013.

“The Board of Trustees approval of the criteria is a vote of confidence for DSM-5,” said Dilip Jeste, MD, president of APA. “We developed DSM-5by utilizing the best experts in the field and extensive reviews of the scientific literature and original research, and we have produced a manual that best represents the current science and will be useful to clinicians and the patients they serve.”

“We have sought to be very conservative in our approach to revisingDSM-5. Our work has been aimed at more accurately defining mental disorders that have a real impact on people’s lives, not expanding the scope of psychiatry,” said David J. Kupfer, M.D., chair of the DSM-5 Task Force. “I’m thrilled to have the Board of Trustees’ support for the revisions and for us to move forward toward the publication."

The manual will include approximately the same number of disorders as were included in DSM-IV. The manual is composed of three sections:


• Section 1 will give an introduction to DSM-5 with information on how to use the updated manual.


• Section 2 will outline the categorical diagnoses according to a revised chapter organization.


• Section 3 will include conditions that require further research before their consideration as formal disorders, as well as cultural concepts of distress, the names of individuals involved in DSM-5’s development, and other information.


Key decisions made by the Board of Trustees include the following:

• Overall Substantive Changes
o Chapter order
o Removal of multiaxial system


• Section 2 Disorders
o Autism spectrum disorder
o Binge eating disorder
o Disruptive mood dysregulation disorder
o Excoriation (skin-picking) disorder
o Hoarding disorder
o Pedophilic disorder
o Personality disorders
o Posttraumatic stress disorder
o Removal of bereavement exclusion
o Specific learning disorders
o Substance use disorder

• Section 3 Disorders
o Attenuated psychosis syndrome
o Internet use gaming disorder
o Nonsuicidal self-injury
o Suicidal behavioral disorder


• Disorders Not Accepted for Sections 2 or 3
o Anxious depression
o Hypersexual disorder
o Parental alienation syndrome
o Sensory processing disorder

A Message From APA President Dilip Jeste, M.D., on DSM-5

December 1, 2012

I am pleased to announce that DSM-5 has just been approved by APA's Board of Trustees. 

Getting to the finish line has taken a decade of arduous work and tens of thousands of pro-bono hours from more than 1,500 experts in psychiatry, psychology, social work, psychiatric nursing, pediatrics, neurology, and other related fields from 39 countries. We look forward to the book’s 

publication next May.

The goal of the DSM-5 process has been to develop a scientifically based manual of psychiatric diagnosis that is useful for clinicians and our patients. APA’s interest in developing DSM dates back to the organization’s inception in 1844, when one of its original missions was to gather statistics on the prevalence of mental illness. In 1917, the Association officially adopted the first system for uniform statistical reporting called the Statistical Manual for the Use of Hospitals for Mental Diseases, which was adopted successfully by mental hospitals throughout the country. It was expanded into the first Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM) in 1952 and first revised (DSM-II) in 1968. Like the rest of the field in that era, these first two versions were substantially influenced by psychoanalytic theories.

With advances in clinical and scientific knowledge, changes in diagnostic systems are inevitable. 

The World Health Organization’s International Classification of Diseases (ICD)—the standard diagnostic tool for epidemiology, health management, and clinical care used around the world, which covers all medical diagnoses—has been through 10 editions since the late 1800s and is 

now preparing its 11th edition, due in 2015. Likewise, DSM has undergone changes to take into account progress in our understanding of mental illnesses. DSM-III, published in 1980 under the leadership of Dr. Robert Spitzer, and DSM-IV, published in 1994 under the leadership of Dr. 

Allen Frances, represented the state of science of psychiatry at those times and significantly advanced the field.

In the two decades since the publication of DSM-IV, we have witnessed a wealth of new studies on epidemiology, neurobiology, psychopathology, and treatment of various mental illnesses. So, it was time for APA to consider making necessary modifications in the diagnostic categories and 

criteria based on new scientific evidence. But there were, of course, challenges inherent in revising an established diagnostic system.

view/download the statement HERE