Distinguishing between the validity and utility of psychiatric diagnoses.

@article{Kendell2003DistinguishingBT,
  title={Distinguishing between the validity and utility of psychiatric diagnoses.},
  author={Robert E. Kendell and Assen A. Jablensky},
  journal={The American journal of psychiatry},
  year={2003},
  volume={160 1},
  pages={
          4-12
        }
}
OBJECTIVE The meaning of the terms "validity" and "utility" as they apply to psychiatric diagnoses is examined. METHOD The authors discuss the concepts of validity, utility, and disease; review assumptions that have been made about mental disorders as disease entities; and examine the evidence that mental disorders are separated from one another and from normality by natural boundaries (zones of rarity). RESULTS Despite historical and recent assumptions to the contrary, there is little… 
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  • 2016
TLDR
While researchers in genetics, neurobiology and population epidemiology are increasingly more likely to adopt a continuum/dimensional view of the variation in symptomatology, clinicians prefer to hold on to the categorical approach embodied in current classifications such as ICD‐10 and DSM‐5.
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    Revista Colombiana de psiquiatria
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An analysis of the data from the Sesto Fiorentino study was performed to investigate the presence of common mood and anxiety symptoms across the most represented DSM IV diagnoses, and supported the hypothesis of a low specificity of these symptoms.
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The utility of psychiatric diagnoses is demonstrated with eating disorders as an example and it is shown that most psychiatric diagnoses are not useful concepts.
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Evidence from multiple lines of research converges to indicate that current classifications contain excessively large numbers of categories of limited validity and psychiatric research should discard the assumption that current classification is valid.
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The findings revealed that psychiatric diagnoses performed multiple clinical, social, and administrative functions in multiple contexts, and acted as a proxy for various factors, with tensions arising across these functions.
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