DSM-5 Postponed Until 2013; Field Trials Scheduled for Summer

The fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders will be released in May 2013, APA announced last month.

The timeline has been extended from the previously planned release date of May 2012. The extension “will allow more time for public review, field trials, and revisions,” said APA President Alan Schatzberg, M.D., in a press release (see Why is DSM-5 Being Delayed?).

Proposed changes to the current diagnostic criteria will be posted on APA's DSM-5 Web site at <www.dsm5.org> for public comments in the near future. After an open period of two to three months, feedback will be reviewed and incorporated by the appropriate work groups under the direction of the DSM-5 Task Force. The resulting draft criteria will then be tested in the first phase of field trials, which are set to begin this summer.

The draft criteria are working documents, emphasized William Narrow, M.D., M.P.H., DSM-5 research director and associate director of APA's Division of Research. He told Psychiatric News that a proportion of the field trials will be conducted by psychiatrists in clinical practice. APA will open channels for member psychiatrists to volunteer to participate in the field trials. Further announcements and discussions with APA members and other practitioners about the revisions and review process for DSM-5 will take place at APA's 2010 annual meeting in May in New Orleans.

Data collected in field trials will be analyzed to inform further revisions to the proposed criteria. The public will then have another window of opportunity to comment on the updated draft of DSM-5 criteria.

APA is working with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) on the implementation of ICD-10-CM, which will begin on October 1, 2013, to ensure that DSM-5 diagnoses will be reflected in codes used by CMS and insurers. Collaborative work between APA and the World Health Organization (WHO) is also in progress on the pending International Classification of Diseases, 11th Revision (ICD-11), for the mental disorders section. The current ICD-10, published by WHO in 1990, contains mental disorders and codes that were consistent with DSM-IV.