Gemma Spake

So the first edition of the DSM was published in 1952.

It included 106 diagnoses.

In 1980, the DSM-3 came out.

I think that jumped to 264 diagnoses.

For the DSM-5, this was published in 2013.

It went up to 300.

There are now over 300 conditions listed in

in the DSM if we count subtypes, if we count specific conditions.

And this last edition also revised things like clinical thresholds, specifies symptom clusters, and provided more examples that would affect

who could actually qualify for a diagnosis.

So I think this is something that maybe some people don't understand about getting diagnosed.

It's not like you go into a psychologist's office or a psychiatrist's office and they let you talk about yourself for a couple of hours and then go, oh, I definitely know this is what's going on with you.

Like there are real clinical guidelines and there are hoops people have to jump through in order to receive a label that would then give them access to medication, help.

services, adjustments.

I think that's something that people who are worried about rising rates, and again, it's not that you shouldn't be worried, but who are worried about rising rates don't understand, which is that you can get a diagnosis the way that you could get a script for an antibiotic.

That is not the case.

ADHD is a really useful example of how these changes have changed

how we see ADHD basically, or how we diagnose it.

In 2013, the DSM-5 raised the age by which symptoms should be present for a diagnosis to occur from seven to 12.

And that is more in line with what clinicians were seeing.