Table of Contents

ABSTRACT

The diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (DSM) accentuates diagnostic rationality and international classification of disease (ICD) emphasizes clinical efficacy and both are indispensable clinical tools, but in practice there is a similarity between them, which have raised questions directed to intangible arguments regarding the taxonomy of mental disorders. The cause of psychiatric disorders is not evidently recognized in the DSM manuals. The ontological status of mental disorders is abstruse by nature, hence the diagnostic method is a vital part in the psychiatric consultation, which has significant practical inferences and could create difficulties in day to day medical practice and in the community. This article reviews the origin, repeated revisions made in these two manuals and analyzes the need for an improved classification methodologies for the civil society and the comprehensive mental health care domain.

Keywords: DSM, ICD, mental health, methodology, taxonomy