Am J Psychiatry 1989; 146:1315-1319
Copyright © 1989 by American Psychiatric Association
A crosswalk from DSM-III-R to ICD-9-CM
JW Thompson and H Pincus
Department of Psychiatry, University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore.
The authors describe a crosswalk, or translation, from DSM-III-R to ICD-
9-CM. They present differences in the purposes and formatting of these two
documents and discuss different levels of compatibility between the two.
They demonstrate several problems at the code, rubric, and case levels of
compatibility. Ninety-seven percent of DSM-III-R codes are compatible with
ICD-9-CM at the case level. The problems in most cases are minor, and in
the authors' opinion are not problems in actual clinical or medical records
use. The development of DSM-IV and ICD-10 should include attention to
translation issues early in the process from the perspectives of clinical
work, research, and medical records.
