ABSTRACT
This chapter highlights souk of the achievements of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV) process. It attempts to evaluate the accomplishments of the DSM-IV process in relation to the major goals established for it. Putting the DSM-IV process in this kind of perspective should help the reader contrast the DSM-IV process with those of its predecessors. The DSM-IV process represented & gain of an order of magnitude over DSM-III-R in its involvement of a large and diverse group of mental health professionals. Substantially more women were also brought into the DSM-IV process. This broadening of input into the process of developing the edition of the DSM was, however, more than simply a visible exercise in democracy. The DSM-IV process began in 1988, when the Work Groups set out both to identify the major unresolved diagnostic problems in their areas of clinical responsibility and to specify the empirical data that would best resolve them.
