User:OldMonkeyPuzzle
Psychiatric diagnosis refers both to the process of attempting to determine the identity of a possible mental disorder and to the opinion reached by this process.
Psychiatric diagnosis begins with a process of assessment. This includes a general medical examination, a patient history, and observations of the patient's appearance and behavior. A diagnosis is generally determined by checking the information obtained and judgements made in the assessment against a check list of possible diagnoses given in a semi-offficial source such as the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition™ (DSM IV) published by the American Psychiatric Association, or the Tenth Revision of the International Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems (ICD-10) Chapter V: Mental and Behavioural Disorders produced by the World Health Organization.
Even almost universal standards such as the DSM-IV and the ICD-10 have been the object of controversy and criticism. They have, for instance, been subject to accusations of cultural bias, bureaucratic or politicized decision making,and undue influence by, for instance, the pharmaceutical industry. The reliability and even the validity of both the individual diagnoses listerd and the systems of thought and organization behind them have been challenged.
Whatever truth there may or may not be in these criticisms, it is certainly the case that the manuals' ideas and approaches have evolved in the decades since they were first produced as they have been the subject of regular revision.