Mental disorder can be classified in many ways. Earliest attempts can be traced back to the ancient Greece. In 5 B.C. Hippocrates tried to establish a classification system for mental disorder. He used words such as mania, hysteria to classify mental illness. In the course of time the vocabulary had been enhanced by word such as circular madness, paranoia etc. However, the first classification system with real scientific profile was provided by Emil Kreapelin (1856-1926). Nowadays, the World Health Organization´s International Classification of Diseases 10 ( ICD -10) and the American Psychiatric Association´s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (of Mental disorders) IV (DSM – IV TR) (2000) are the most commonly used classification systems in the world. They two have gone through several revisions before the most recent versions could be published.
The ICD is an international classification system for all diseases, which did not include any diagnostic criteria for mental disorder before the 6th version of ICD have been published.
DSM IV TR is the primary system used in the USA to classify and diagnose people. The first two manuals were published in 1952 and 1968. The two were criticized for their low reliability/validity and bad utility of syndromal diagnosis. The third edition (1972) was an important development, as it was the first empirical based nomenclature of the DSMs. It improved the reliability, validity and utility of syndromal diagnosis substantially. It introduced the multiaxial approach of five scales, which is characteristic for the 4th edition of DSM. Professionals are using those five axes to asset the patient`s presenting complaint. It is quite common that patients are classified as having two different disorders from Axis I or Axis II respectively.
The new edition DSM IV (1994), chaired by the psychiatrist Allen Frances, should provide a better documentation of the empirical support. The purpose was to improve the utility of the