Three Approaches to Understanding and Classifying Mental Disorder: ICD-11, DSM-5, and the National Institute of Mental Health’s Research Domain Criteria (RDoC)

The classification of mental disorders has long been the subject of controversy among mental health professionals. Despite a Significant expansion of knowledge about mental disorders during the past half century, understanding of their processes and components remains rudimentary. This article provides descriptions of three systems with different purposes relevant to understanding and classifying mental disorder: Two major diagnostic manuals -the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM), the International Classification of Diseases (ICD) and the National Institute of Mental Health's Research Domain Criteria (RDoC) that prepares a framework that emphasizes integration of basic behavioral and neuroscience research to deepen the understanding of mental disorders. It is identified four key issues that present challenges to understanding and classifying the mental disorder: etiology, including the multiple causality of mental disorder; Categories or dimensions, whether the relevant phenomena are discrete categories or dimensions; thresholds, which set the boundaries between disorder and nondisorder; and comorbidity, the fact that individuals with mental illness often meet diagnostic requirements for multiple conditions. Although the systems have varying degrees of overlap and distinguishing features, the common purpose of all three is reducing the burden of suffering due to mental disorder by better understanding and proper classification.