Safety note: DSM and Diagnosis

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Symptoms and diagnosis need clinical context

Diagnostic manuals can help organise symptoms, but they are not a self-diagnosis tool. Good diagnosis also considers duration, impairment, context, medical causes, culture, risk, and the person's own account.

Symptom lists and articles can help you notice patterns and prepare better questions, but they cannot diagnose you. Trusted clinical sources describe diagnosis as a process that may include history, current symptoms, mental-health assessment, physical health, medication and substance review, possible tests to rule out medical causes, and judgement about severity, duration, impairment, and safety.

If safety may be at risk

If you or someone else may be in immediate danger, may harm themselves or someone else, or feels unable to stay safe, use emergency help now. In Ireland call 112 or 999, or go to the nearest Emergency Department. Outside Ireland, use your local emergency number.

The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) is published by the American Psychiatric Association (APA) and is one of the main two diagnostic manuals for mental health conditions in the world. The current version is the fifth edition. The other manual is the International Classifications of Diseases (ICD) published by the World Health Organisation (WHO). The DSM is mainly used in English speaking countries, including the US and UK, and in research, while the ICD is often used elsewhere.

Even although the DSM is widely used worldwide, one of its problems is that it is published by a national association and not an international body. Even in the US, the ICD-10 is officially encouraged for coding mental health conditions.

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