Diagnosis must account for individual ability to function

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Sven Bölte
Professor, Karolinska Institutet

There are any number of ways to conceptualize behavioral problems. There has been an emerging consensus over the past four years that mental conditions should be understood from at least three perspectives: the features or symptoms present, the effects on daily functioning within various environments, and a person’s subjective experience and quality of life.

The standard diagnostic manuals provide useful categorical descriptions of various conditions. But neither the “International Statistical Classification of Diseases” nor the “Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders” sufficiently account for either an individual’s ability to function in his daily life, or the quality of his life. Yet functioning and daily experience are frequently the starting points for clinical assessments.

https://spectrumnews.org/opinion/viewpo ... -function/