DSM-5 Historical Perspectives

Abstract

The first major attempts to categorize psychiatric disorders in the United States occurred in the mid-1800s, when census data were collected that included "insanity" and "idiocy" of household members. In Europe, Florence Nightingale promoted the use of non-fatal disease classification for morbidity and treatment in 1860. By the late 1800s, Kraepelin categorized disorders, and his sixth edition of the Compendium der Psychiatrie was widely adopted by both Europeans and Americans. In 1952, the American Psychiatric Association published the first edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM). Since then, the manual has been periodically updated, expanded, and edited to reflect social and scientific beliefs about the etiology and categorization of psychiatric illness and care. In this article, we explore the historical and ongoing development of the DSM and its implications for psychiatric nurses.

Treatment resistant depression in women with peripartum depression

“…Peripartum depression is not only a leading cause of disease burden for women and their families [1], but also has been associated with negative effects on the fetus, infant and young child [2]. Peripartum depression is clinically diagnosed when mood symptoms of major depression occur during pregnancy or in the 4 weeks following delivery [3, 4]. Studies have shown that a woman has a greater risk of being admitted to a psychiatric hospital within the first month postpartum than at any other time in her life [5].…”