Would the use of dimensions instead of categories remove problems related to subthreshold disorders?

摘要

Scientific progress fostered in DSM and ICD over the past quarter of century has significantly increased awareness of the limitation of categorical definitions of mental illness. Disorders highly merge into another with no natural boundary in between. The addition of continuous, “dimensional” measures into the various diagnostic domains might help resolve some of the critical taxonomic issues currently facing the field of mental health. It was overtly recognized that both categorical and dimensional approaches to diagnosis are important both for clinical work and for research, and that the ideal taxonomy would offer both. Within each diagnostic entity, there are multiple options for creating a dimensional scale based on a categorical definition. The ICD 10 and DSM IV have no place for subthreshold disorders except in atypical, not otherwise specified or to marginalize its existence with subsequent suffering and impairment of the patients. The chapter will discuss how the subthreshold affective, psychotic, anxiety, cognitive and substance abuse and other psychiatric disorders contribute to psychiatric morbidity and impairment. The chapter discusses the impairment and suffering of patients with subthreshold various psychiatric disorders and how its inclusion in a dimensional approach may result in ameliorating the suffering of that group as their current status may initiate some ethical considerations for their management.