Military personnel who have witnessed or faced violence, loss, and the horrors of war can develop PTSD because of their experiences. Accidents, whether they occur on the road or in other situations, can have far-reaching psychological effects on individuals that extend beyond physical injuries. Natural disasters, like earthquakes, hurricanes, floods, and wildfires can disrupt the lives of those affected, leaving them to deal with the aftermath and potential loss of loved ones or belongings. While not everyone who experiences trauma will develop PTSD, those who do may face an array of distressing symptoms that significantly impact their lives. Traumatic events can include a range of situations, from life-threatening events to distressing incidents. In this context, trauma refers to an experience or event (or multiple experiences) that damages an individual’s sense of safety, control, and well-being, often overwhelming their ability to cope with what they've been through. PTSD is a condition that may develop following trauma. These criteria are useful for mental health professionals in identifying and evaluating clients who suffer from this debilitating condition. The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition, Text Revision ( DSM-5-TR ), published by the American Psychiatric Association (APA), provides guidelines for diagnosing PTSD.
The following chart shows the current, full DSM-5 diagnosis list.Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is a mental health condition that can occur after someone has experienced a traumatic event. (The DSM-5, in contrast, only lists 297 disorders.) Z codes and V codes designate “other conditions that may be a focus of clinical attention”, but they are not considered disorders. To make matters even more complicated, the US uses its own variant of the ICD-10 called the Clinical Modification (ICD-10-CM), which has almost 70,000 diagnosis codes. These recommended, HIPAA-compliant codes were just updated in October 2021. The ICD is currently in its 11th iteration (ICD-11), but the US will continue to use ICD-9 and ICD-10 codes for billing and classification purposes until it fully implements ICD-11 in ~2027. Rather, the manual uses coding protocols from the International Classification of Diseases (ICD), which was developed by the World Health Organization (WHO). The DSM-5 does not apply its own classification codes for each individual mental health disorder.
The current version of this diagnostic manual is the Fifth Edition, or the DSM-5 (2013). In the US, mental health professionals primarily use the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM), published by the American Psychiatric Association (APA), as an authoritative clinical guide to diagnosing and treating mental health and behavioral conditions. Disorders that people live with throughout the lifespan are called chronic mental illnesses. Some psychiatric conditions may be temporary, occur occasionally, and never return again. Mental disorders are connected with distress and/or impairment in functioning, whether that be socially, occupationally, or in some other dimension of life.Īccording to the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), about one in five adults lives with a mental disorder (any mental illness, or AMI) in the US, and about one in 18 American adults has a serious mental illness (SMI). Mental disorders (aka mental illnesses) are health conditions that involve changes in thinking, emotion, or behavior-or some combination of the three.