Study Questions Reliance on DSM for Depression Diagnosis

To determine whether or not a patient suffers from depression, a doctor will often refer to a checklist of symptoms found in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM), often called the “bible” of psychiatry. According to the current protocol, it does not matter which of the symptoms the patients have, as long as they have a certain number of them.

A new study shows that this may not be the most accurate way to diagnose depression, however, as some of these symptoms play a much bigger role than others in driving depression, and that the symptoms listed in DSM may not be the most useful ones.

READ FULL ARTICLE From Psych Central