Will the new diagnostic criteria improve differential diagnoses, and thus make treatment more effective?
For example, the subtypes of schizophrenia (paranoid, catatonic, disorganized, undifferentiated) have been eliminated in DSM-V. These subtypes have been "eliminated due to their limited diagnostic stability, low reliability, and poor validity. These subtypes also have not been shown to exhibit distinctive patterns of treatment response or longitudinal course. Instead, a dimensional approach to rating severity for the core symptoms of schizophrenia is included in Section III to capture the important heterogeneity in symptom type and severity expressed across individuals with psychotic disorders." (Highlights of Changes from DSM-IV-TR to DSM-5, 2013, American Psychiatric Association).
Higher stability, reliability, and validity are going to be beneficial to a diagnostic system. How might this improvement in diagnostic accuracy and specificity be helpful in the treatment of psychotic disorders?
There is no evidence whatsoever that changes in the outmoded DSM categories have resulted in advances in efficacy of antipsychotics or antidepressants. The minor changes in D-5 will do nothing. If anyone has evidence to the contrary, I'd like to see it.
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