Am J Psychiatry 1985; 142:634-637
Copyright © 1985 by American Psychiatric Association
Diagnosing schizophrenia in 1982: the effect of DSM-III
MH Lipkowitz and S Idupuganti
In 1982, 2 years after the introduction of DSM-III, the authors sent
questionnaires to 1,313 psychiatrists in the United States asking what
criteria they used to diagnose schizophrenia. They received responses from
341 and compared these with responses of 301 psychiatrists to the same
question in October 1980, 3 months after the introduction of DSM- III. The
results indicate that DSM-III did not have a major effect on the diagnostic
practices of psychiatrists from 1980 to 1982. A high number of
psychiatrists continued to approach the diagnosis of schizophrenia in an
individualistic, unsystematic way.
