The International Classification of Impairments, Disabilities, and Handicaps: A Mental Health Perspective

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The International Classification of Impairments, Disabilities, and Handicaps (the ICIDH) was developed in the 1970s as an extension of the World Health Organization's International Classification of Diseases (ICD). It was developed principally to meet the criticisms of ICD users who thought that the ICD (a) did not sufficiently cover the impact of a given disease on an individual and the society in which he or she lived, and (b) was unable to describe the heterogeneity of the clinical expression of a disorder and the disorder's variable evolution in different individuals and societies. The ICIDH was first published by the World Health Organization (WHO) in 1980 and is currently undergoing its first major revision. In this revision process, psychiatry is being given an important place in response to complaints of users that the ICIDH presently has limited application in the mental health field. In a brief discussion here, I would like to describe the role of the ICIDH in relation to mental health—and to psychogeriatrics in particular—drawing on a number of debates in which I have been involved over the past few years.