New Perspectives on the Classification of Child Psychiatric Disorders

The two most widely used classification systems of mental health disorders are the World Health Organization's International Classification of Diseases (ICD) and the American Psychiatric Association's Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM). Classification in child and adolescent psychiatry is a tool for communication amongst clinicians and researchers. The modern area in psychiatric classification started with the development of a Glossary of Mental Disorders and Guide to Classification in 1974, which brought order to the previous ‘chaotic state of the classifications in use in psychiatry’, and in the USA with DSM-III's narrative description of the clinical features of disorders. Earlier ICD classifications supported a multi-dimensional and multi-axial framework for child psychiatric diagnoses, as did DSM-IV for disorders across the age range. In DSM-5 the neurodevelopment disorders are characterized by persistent behavioural and cognitive problems that affect brain-based functions, including intellectual function and learning, communication and social function, attention and motor control.