title: Reliability of diagnosis in mood disorders.
abstract: The reliability of diagnosing mood disorders is reviewed for previous and current versions of the American Psychiatric Association's DMS. Reliability is shown to improve with the increasing specificity of diagnostic criteria. The new specifiers for the course of major depression in relation to dysthymia also are shown to be reliable.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston, USA.
authors.forename: C E
authors.initials: CE
authors.lastname: Holzer
authors.forename: H T
authors.initials: HT
authors.lastname: Nguyen
authors.forename: R M
authors.initials: RM
authors.lastname: Hirschfeld
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D002908:Chronic Disease; D003866:Depressive Disorder / Q000145:classification / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000523:psychology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015588:Observer Variation; D010552:Personality Assessment / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D016896:Treatment Outcome