Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-dsjbd Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-01T00:16:06.413Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

A history of the DSM-5 scientific review committee

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 July 2013

K. S. Kendler*
Affiliation:
Departments of Psychiatry and Human and Molecular Genetics, Virginia Commonwealth University School of Medicine, Richmond, VA, USA
*
*Address for correspondence: K. S. Kendler, M.D., Virginia Institute for Psychiatric and Behavioral Genetics of VCU, Box 980126, Richmond, VA 23298-0126, USA. (Email: [email protected])

Abstract

This article describes the history of the Scientific Review Committee (SRC) for DSM-5 and reviews its background, procedures and deliberative processes, and conceptual/philosophical framework. The results of its work and the most important and contentious issues that arose in its efforts are reviewed. The central role of the SRC was to provide external review for all proposals for diagnostic change in DSM-5, evaluate them on their level of empirical support using objectively structured rules of evidence agreed upon in advance and make appropriate recommendations to the leadership of the American Psychiatric Association. While the creation of the SRC necessitated a great deal of additional work on the part of the SRC, the workgroups and the DSM-5 Task Force, the SRC succeeded in increasing the focus on empirical standards for nosologic change and providing a greater degree of consistency and objectivity in the DSM review process. The article concludes with recommendations, based on lessons learned, for similar efforts that might be included in future iterations of our psychiatric nosology.

Type
Review Article
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2013 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Bacon, F (1620). The New Organon. Bobbs-Merrill Educational Publishing: Indianapolis.Google Scholar
Chang, H (2004). Inventing Temperature: Measurement and Scientific Progress. Oxford University Press: New York.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kendler, KS (1980). The nosologic validity of paranoia (simple delusional disorder). A review. Archives of General Psychiatry 37, 699706.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kendler, KS (2009). An historical framework for psychiatric nosology. Psychological Medicine 39, 19351941.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kendler, KS (2012). Epistemic iteration as a historical model for psychiatric nosology: promises and limitations. In Philosophical Issues in Psychiatry II: Nosology (ed. Kendler, K. S. and Parnas, J.), pp. 303322. Oxford University Press: Oxford.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kuhn, TS (1996). The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, 3rd edn.University of Chicago Press: Chicago.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Robins, E, Guze, SB (1970). Establishment of diagnostic validity in psychiatric illness: its application to schizophrenia. American Journal of Psychiatry 126, 983987.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Supplementary material: File

Kendler supplementary Appendix

Kendler supplementary Appendix

Download Kendler supplementary Appendix(File)
File 82.9 KB