Categorising Mental Disorders

6 Major Types of Mental Disorders

Many times, when we consider mental disorders or psychological disorders, it's (but not always) often in terms of abnormal behaviour. This perspective is also commonly used when categorising mental disorders or psychiatric nosology.

There are 6 major types of mental disorders:

Benefits of Labelling and Categorising Mental Disorders

There are several reasons why the classification of mental disorders is important:

• It allows for an objective diagnosis of a disorder someone may have.

• It shows symptoms of disorders to allow for easier identification of a potential disorder.

• It can be used to identify potential research participants, e.g. participants with mental disorders.

• It makes it easier to identify the support people with mental disorders need.

Fig. 1 - Categorising mental disorders can be helpful in finding the right treatment

Disadvantages of Classification of Mental Disorders

Are there disadvantages to the classification of mental disorders? Well, identifying the difference between normal and abnormal behaviour can be a challenging task. So much so that some psychologists have questioned the reliability of categorising mental disorders based on abnormal behaviours.

David Rosenhan (1973), a former psychiatrist at Stanford University, wanted to see just how well psychiatrists really could distinguish between normal and abnormal behaviours.

In his experiment, he sent eight "normal" psychologists to 12 mental hospitals, meaning none had a mental disorder. However, every one of the 12 hospitals diagnosed all of the fake patients with mental disorders.

Disadvantages of Classification of Mental Disorders: Cultural Considerations

DSM IV and ICD 10

Now, let's look at some modern examples of categorising mental disorders -- the DSM IV and ICD 10.

DSM-IV and ISD-10: Important Differences

This shows that the DSM may be more restrictive than the ICD. Or, the DSM may be more precise at diagnosis. This finding cannot be identified if one is better than the other. The ICD symptoms of ASD may overlap with other mental disorders, so participants diagnosed may have other mental disorders. Or the DSM may be too restrictive.

Psychiatric Classification System Strengths and Limitations

Psychiatric classification systems are used throughout the world to diagnose mental disorders. However, different countries may use different classification systems. Let's explore the psychiatric classification system's strengths and limitations using the DSM and ICD as examples.

Psychiatric Classification System Strengths and Limitations: DSM

First, the strengths and limitations of the DSM.

Strengths of the DSM

First, the newer editions of the DSM have adjusted the listed mental disorders to consider social changes in society.

Another strength is that the DSM is regularly updated based on rigorously tested empirical psychology evidence. Updates ensure the manual is accurate.

Limitations

There are overlapping diagnostic symptoms of mental illnesses which results in co-morbidity.

This can be a major problem because clinicians may diagnose someone with one disorder while missing another diagnosis entirely simply because the symptoms so closely resemble each other. As mentioned early, proper diagnosis can be integral to finding an effective treatment.

Fig. 2 - Categorising mental disorders is important because mental health matters

Another weakness is that since the American Psychological Association (APA) designed the manual, it can be considered ethnocentric. In other words, the manual may not consider cultural differences and may only benefit the American population.

Psychiatric Classification System Strengths and Limitations: ICD-10

Next, the psychiatric classification system strengths and limitations in ICD-10 will be discussed.

Strengths

The ICD-10 is a diagnostic manual that is free of charge. The manual is available for anyone, making mental health diagnoses easily and readily available to everyone worldwide, including third-world countries.

Secondly, the manual lists all known diseases and illnesses, which helps clinicians identify diseases and illnesses of patients which may be less known.

Limitations

Some argue that a significant limitation of the ICD is that it is beneficial for identifying mental illnesses but not as much for determining the severity of symptoms (Hoffman et al., 2015). Additionally, the model takes the medical model approach to mental illness and ignores other alternatives, such as the humanistic or psychodynamic explanations.

Finally, the ICD considers that mental illnesses can be understood based on symptoms experienced but ignores important factors such as childhood experiences or self-actualisation factors.