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Patterns and issues in multiaxial psychiatric diagnosis1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 July 2009

Juan E. Mezzich
Juan E. Mezzich*
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Stanford University School of Medicine, California, USA
*
2Address for correspondence: Dr Juan E. Mezzich, Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, 3811 O'Hara St, Pittsburgh, Pa 15261, USA.
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Synopsis

The multiaxial diagnostic model, consisting in the systematic formulation of a patient's condition according to separate clinical variables or aspects, is receiving increasing attention in several parts of the world. This innovative model promises to improve diagnostic reliability and validity and involves many methodological challenges. This paper reviews patterns and issues in the conceptualization of axial content, number and organization of axes, dimensional versus categorical scaling, and evaluation and further development of multiaxial systems.

Information

Type
Research Article
Information
Psychological Medicine , Volume 9 , Issue 1 , February 1979, pp. 125 - 137
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1979

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Footnotes

1

This paper was presented at the VI World Congress of Psychiatry, Symposium on Multiaxial Systems of Classification in Psychiatry, Honolulu, Hawaii, August 1977.

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