Obsessive-Compulsive Spectrum Disorders: Refining the Research Agenda for DSM-V

The five-year process of preparing for the revision of the Diagnostic and
Statistical Manual (DSM) has been organized around a series of conferences
convened by the American Psychiatric Association, in collaboration with the
World Health Organization and the U.S. National Institutes of Health, to address
the future of psychiatric diagnosis. Obsessive-Compulsive Spectrum Disorders:
Refining the Research Agenda for DSM-V is the fruit of one of those conferences
and presents the most academically sound, thought-provoking, and timely papers
from the proceedings.

As the conference and book demonstrate, recent
advances in psychiatric diagnosis suggest a new approach to obsessive-compulsive
disorder (OCD) classification: Research into the pathogenesis of OCD
increasingly supports reclassification out of the anxiety disorders and into a
separate group of obsessive-compulsive-related disorders (OCRDs). The
relationships among OCRDs may be better defined, delineated, and understood if
the current categorical diagnostic approach is supplemented with a dimensional
approach which assesses obsessive-compulsive symptom domains.
Obsessive-compulsive disorders are believed to be underdiagnosed in patients who
complain of broad symptoms of anxiety, and reclassification of OCD as an OCRD
would promote more careful examination of distinct obsessive-compulsive
symptoms, yield more accurate diagnosis, and result in more effective
treatments. Reclassification may facilitate future research directions in
examining the biological underpinnings of these disorders.

In addition to
examining the genetic, neurological, and ethno-cultural bases for OCRDs, the
book gives special attention to disorders that cross current diagnostic
categories, including: Body dysmorphic disorder (BDD) Tourette's syndrome and
trichotillomania Impulse-control disorders

The process leading to
publication of DSM-V is by its nature an exhaustive and complex one, and the
conferences play a critical role in reviewing relevant research, assessing the
status of scientific knowledge, and advancing that knowledge base.
Obsessive-Compulsive Spectrum Disorders: Refining the Research Agenda for DSM-V
represents the cutting-edge thinking that will culminate in new diagnoses,
classifications, and standards of practice for this debilitating set of
disorders. Clinicians and academicians will be fascinated by this glimpse into
the next generation of the DSM-V.