Alcohol Use Disorder: A Comparison Between DSM–IV and DSM–5

DSM History and Background

The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) initially developed out of a need to collect statistical information about mental disorders in the United States. The first attempt to collect information on mental health began in the 1840 census. By the 1880 census, the Bureau of the Census had developed seven categories of mental illness. In 1917, the Bureau of the Census began collecting uniform statistics from mental hospitals across the country.

Not long afterward, the American Psychiatric Association and the New York Academy of Medicine collaborated to produce a “nationally acceptable psychiatric nomenclature” for diagnosing patients with severe psychiatric and neurological disorders. After World War I, the Army and Veterans Administration broadened the nomenclature to include disorders affecting veterans.

In 1952, the American Psychiatric Association Committee on Nomenclature and Statistics published the first edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual: Mental Disorders (DSM–I). The DSM–I included a glossary describing diagnostic categories and included an emphasis on how to use the manual for making clinical diagnoses. The DSM–II, which was very similar to the DSM–I, was published in 1968. The DSM–III, published in 1980, introduced several innovations, including explicit diagnostic criteria for the various disorders, that are now a recognizable feature of the DSM. A 1987 revision to the DSM–III, called the DSM–III–R, clarified some of these criteria and also addressed inconsistencies in the diagnostic system. A comprehensive review of the scientific literature strengthened the empirical basis of the next edition, the DSM–IV, which was published in 1994. The DSM–IV–TR, a revision published in 2000, provided additional information on diagnosis. Since 1952, each subsequent edition of the DSM aimed to improve clinicians’ ability to understand and diagnose a wide range of conditions.