Sweeting et al. (2009)

Fugly baby (2009)

Berko et al. (2009)

Temporal lobes

Frontal lobes

Ear lobes

Episodic

Semantic

Declarative

Procedural

13.5 | 21.5

14.5 | 23.5

21.5 | 13.5

23.5 | 14.5

Dopamine

Norepinephrine

GABA

Serotonin

III

V

IV

VI

Increases understanding about the causes of mental disorders

Comorbidity

Medicalisation of normality

Use of categorical model

It is useful at evaluating the effevtiveness of interventions

Necessary to organize the appropriate services and help sufferers

Because of its very high number of diagnoses, and because it has a rather low threshold for many diagnoses (e.g., ADHD), some believe that DSM-5 diagnoses many normal individuals as being mentally ill.

The discrete DSM-5 disorders often co-occur. This is especially the case with personality disorders. This suggests that most disorders might not be independent discrete disorders with their own etiology.

By classifying individuals as either meeting the criteria for a disorder or not meeting them, DSM-5 adopts a categorical model (disorders differ from normality in kind). However, many disorders appear to be dimensional (they differ from normality in degree).