title: Diagnostic Issues and Controversies in DSM-5: Return of the False Positives Problem.
abstract: The fifth revision of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5) was the most controversial in the manual's history. This review selectively surveys some of the most important changes in DSM-5, including structural/organizational changes, modifications of diagnostic criteria, and newly introduced categories. It analyzes why these changes led to such heated controversies, which included objections to the revision's process, its goals, and the content of altered criteria and new categories. The central focus is on disputes concerning the false positives problem of setting a valid boundary between disorder and normal variation. Finally, this review highlights key problems and issues that currently remain unresolved and need to be addressed in the future, including systematically identifying false positive weaknesses in criteria, distinguishing risk from disorder, including context in diagnostic criteria, clarifying how to handle fuzzy boundaries, and improving the guidelines for "other specified" diagnosis.
authors.affiliation: NYU Silver School of Social Work, New York University, New York, NY 10003.|Department of Psychiatry, NYU School of Medicine, New York University, New York, NY 10016; email: wakefield@nyu.edu.
authors.forename: Jerome C
authors.initials: JC
authors.lastname: Wakefield
mesh_terms: D039721:Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders; D006801:Humans; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000145:classification / Q000175:diagnosis*
keywords: diagnosis; false positives; harmful dysfunction; mental disorder; validity