Cover Image: September 2003 Scientific American Magazine See Inside

Diagnosing Disorders [Preview]

Psychiatric illnesses are often hard to recognize, but genetic testing and neuroimaging could someday be used to improve detection















Share on Tumblr

Accurate diagnosis is the cornerstone of medical care. To plan a successful treatment for a patient, a doctor must first determine the nature of the illness. In most branches of medicine, physicians can base their diagnoses on objective tests: a doctor can examine x-rays to see if a bone is broken, for example, or extract tissue samples to search for cancer cells. But for some common and serious psychiatric disorders, diagnoses are still based entirely on the patient's own report of symptoms and the doctor's observations of the patient's behavior. The human brain is so enormously complex that medical researchers have not yet been able to devise definitive tests to diagnose illnesses such as schizophrenia, autism, bipolar disorder or major depression.

Because psychiatrists must employ subjective evaluations, they face the challenge of reliability: how to ensure that two different doctors arrive at the same diagnosis for the same patient. To address this concern, the American Psychiatric Association in 1980 published the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Third Edition (widely known by the acronym "DSM-III"). Unlike earlier editions of the manual, DSM-III and its successor volumes (the latest one is referred to as DSM-IV-TR) describe what symptoms must be present--and for how long--to make a diagnosis of a particular brain disorder. Virtually all these criteria, however, are based on the patient's history and the clinical encounter. Without the ability to apply objective tests, physicians may fail to detect disorders and sometimes mistake the symptoms of one illness for another's. Making the task more difficult is the fact that some psychiatric illnesses, such as schizophrenia, may turn out to be clusters of diseases that have similar symptoms but require different treatments.


This article was originally published with the title Diagnosing Disorders.



Subscribe     Buy This Issue

Already a Digital subscriber? Sign-in Now
If your institution has site license access, enter here.

4 Comments

Add Comment
View
  1. 1. Kobidobidog 10:15 PM 1/7/11

    The one with a psychological disorder is the one who does not have the everlasting love of the Lord God Jesus Christ in them loving all as one not caring who does whatever kind of sex on this planet of sex that the Lord God Jesus Christ made. All apposed to nudity,and sex with another species only give what the adversary to God would want to give,and not the things a compassionate loving God would give,and that love so indescribably delicious that the redeemed will be enraptured with awe for all of eternity observing a love so big the vast expanse of Google universes would not be not large enough to contain it.
    God says: 1 Corinthians 11:31 ;King James Bible
    For if we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged.
    Luke 6:37,King James Bible
    Judge not, and ye shall not be judged: condemn not, and ye shall not be condemned: forgive, and ye shall be forgiven.
    Yet the godless still condemn, persecute, and dehumanize humans just like the once that call themselves psychologists.
    Proverbs 12 20,Deceit is in the heart of them that imagine evil: but to the counsellers of peace is joy.

    The once against the zoo are lusting to destroy their neighbors too being a hypocrite.
    Proverbs 11,9An hypocrite with his mouth destroyeth his neighbour: but through knowledge shall the just be delivered.
    I have the knowledge to deliver them

    Those giving condemning accusing words of guilt seek to destroy their neighbor the gay, zoosexual, pedophile, and many more.
    Be holy, and stop the persecution of whoever.
    .2 Timothy 3,12, Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution.
    End persecutor NOW, and save your soul.

    Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this
  2. 2. Kobidobidog 10:25 PM 1/7/11

    Instead of giving names to things ADHD asthma,autism, MS etc, go to www.upcspine.com,practitioners. Do that right now no matter how you feel, and take your whole family. don't suffer needlessly. Some will get a normalized spine faster than others because each spine is better or worse than the spine of someone else.

    Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this
  3. 3. Kobidobidog 02:03 AM 1/8/11

    The one with a psychological disorder is the one who does not have the everlasting love of the Lord God Jesus Christ in them loving all as one not caring who does whatever kind of sex on this planet of sex that the Lord God Jesus Christ made. All apposed to nudity,and sex with another species only give what the adversary to God would want to give,and not the things a compassionate loving God would give,and that love so indescribably delicious that the redeemed will be enraptured with awe for all of eternity observing a love so big the vast expanse of Google universes would not be not large enough to contain it.
    God says: 1 Corinthians 11:31 ;King James Bible
    For if we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged.
    Luke 6:37,King James Bible
    Judge not, and ye shall not be judged: condemn not, and ye shall not be condemned: forgive, and ye shall be forgiven.
    Yet the godless still condemn, persecute, and dehumanize humans just like the once that call themselves psychologists.
    Proverbs 12 20,Deceit is in the heart of them that imagine evil: but to the counsellers of peace is joy.

    The once against the zoo are lusting to destroy their neighbors too being a hypocrite.
    Proverbs 11,9An hypocrite with his mouth destroyeth his neighbour: but through knowledge shall the just be delivered.
    I have the knowledge to deliver them

    Those giving condemning accusing words of guilt seek to destroy their neighbor the gay, zoosexual, pedophile, and many more.
    Be holy, and stop the persecution of whoever.
    .2 Timothy 3,12, Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution.
    End persecution NOW, and save your soul.

    Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this
  4. 4. Kobidobidog 02:04 AM 1/8/11

    I wanted to correct one word.

    Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this
Leave this field empty

Add a Comment

You must sign in or register as a ScientificAmerican.com member to submit a comment.
Click one of the buttons below to register using an existing Social Account.

More from Scientific American

See what we're tweeting about

Scientific American Editors

More »

Free Newsletters


Get the best from Scientific American in your inbox

Solve Innovation Challenges

Powered By: Innocentive

  SA Digital
  SA Digital

Science Jobs of the Week

Email this Article

Diagnosing Disorders: Scientific American Magazine

X
Scientific American Magazine

Subscribe Today

Save 66% off the cover price and get a free gift!

Learn More >>

X

Please Log In

Forgot: Password

X

Account Linking

Welcome, . Do you have an existing ScientificAmerican.com account?

Yes, please link my existing account with for quick, secure access.



Forgot Password?

No, I would like to create a new account with my profile information.

Create Account
X

Report Abuse

Are you sure?

X

Institutional Access

It has been identified that the institution you are trying to access this article from has institutional site license access to Scientific American on nature.com. To access this article in its entirety through site license access, click below.

Site license access
X

Error

X

Share this Article

X