DSM-IV Training Guide For Diagnosis Of Childhood Disorders

Book excerpt: First published in 1996. Revised to reflect changes made in DSM-IV as they pertain to childhood psychiatric disorders, this updated DSM-IV Training Guide for Diagnosis of Childhood Disorders provides specific instructions for optimally using the DSM-IV. This meticulously researched companion guide will provide welcome clarification and definition of the terms and concepts included in the DSM-IV criteria for disorders pertaining specifically to children and adolescents. The volume encompasses both psychopathology specific to infancy, childhood, and adolescence and other psychiatric disorders, such as Anxiety, Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder, Depression, and Schizophrenia, that are more common as adult disorders by may appear in childhood. While the diagnostic criteria for these are largely the same for children and adults, there are differences that emerge when making differential diagnosis of these disorders for children, as illuminated in the Training Guide. This companion guide focuses on the manifestation of various disorders, differentiation among syndromes, and qualify of characteristics. Numerous and vivid case vignettes clearly illustrate clinical symptoms and demonstrate the application of diagnostic guidelines. The book highlights the multiaxial approach of DSM as a means of assessing the child from a variety of perspectives including exogenous factors influencing development, sources of a particular disorder, and the child's innate limitations and capabilities. Diagnostic criteria and main features of specific disorders are highlighted in numerous tables and figures interspersed throughout the volume. Most importantly, the Guide highlights the gray areas of diagnosis with the hope that increased clinical awareness and record keeping will lead to more accurate classification - and ultimately superior treatment - in the future. The DSM-IV Training Guide for Diagnosis of Childhood Disorders will serve clinicians well in the sometimes difficult and subjective quest for the appropriate diagnosis, treatment, and management of children and adolescents with psychiatric disorders. It will also serve to promote the kind of dialogue and research that will lead to even greater diagnostic consensus among practitioners and encourage a more reliable and valid diagnostic practice in the future.