The Development of DSM-IV

In May, 1988, the Board of Trustees of the American Psychiatric Association (APA), Washington, DC, appointed a task force to begin work on the fourth edition of theDiagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV), scheduled to be published in 1993. In a recent article that appeared in theNEWS AND VIEWSsection of theARCHIVES, Zimmerman1suggested that such an endeavor might be premature and expressed concern that any revisions toDSM-III-Rwould be necessarily rushed and whimsical, would be unresponsive to research, and would contribute to the confusing array of alternative diagnostic criteria sets already available in the literature. Similar concerns have been expressed elsewhere.2-5We will provide here the background for the decision to publishDSM-IVin 1993, the rationale for beginning this work in 1988, and the procedural safeguards we have instituted to minimize arbitrary and idiosyncratic revisions. DSM-IV AND ICD-10 The APA