An introduction to the American Psychiatric Association's new diagnostic nomenclature for New York State Department of Mental Hygiene Personnel

Summary

For many years the New York State Department of Mental Hygiene has used two nomenclatures to record psychiatric diagnoses. The state hospitals used the 1942 “Revised Classification,” a revision of the American Medical Association's 1934 classification, and all other mental health facilities used the first edition of theDiagnostic and Statistical Manual of the American Psychiatric Association.

As of October 1968 all New York State mental health facilities will begin using one nomenclature: the second edition of theDiagnostic and Statistical Manual of the American Psychiatric Association. This article is an introduction to this new nomenclature for readers who have been using the 1942 Revised Classification. The background to the new nomenclature and the differences between it and the 1942 Revised Classification are discussed. Finally, a conversion table is presented which lists each diagnosis in the old classification and its counterpart, if present, in the new one.