A Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders History of Premenstrual Dysphoric Disorder

The proposals to include a menstruation-related mood disorder in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Revised Third Edition (DSM-III-R), and DSM-IV led to intense public and behind-the-scenes controversy. Although the controversies surrounding the DSM-5 revision were greater in number than the controversies of the earlier revisions, the DSM-5 proposal to include a menstruation-related mood disorder was not among them. Premenstrual dysphoric disorder was made an official disorder in the DSM-5 with no significant protest. To understand the factors that led to this change, we interviewed those psychiatrists and psychologists who were most involved in the DSM-IV revision. On the basis of these interviews, we offer a list of empirical and nonempirical considerations that led to the DSM-IV compromise and explore how key alterations in these considerations led to a different outcome for the DSM-5.