DSM - 5 Categories of Mental Disorders

Elimination Disorders

These disorders are usually diagnosed in childhood and entail the inappropriate elimination of urine or feces. An example here would be enuresis (i.e., bed-wetting).

Neurocognitive Disorders

This category includes disorders where the primary disturbance is in cognitive function that is acquired (i.e., not developmental). Examples here include the cognitive decline (or "dementia") that we see associated with Alzheimer's disease or following a stroke.

Feeding and Eating Disorders

A range of different conditions involving disturbance in feeding or eating behaviour are included in this category. The two most commonly known of these disorders are anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa. Anorexia is characterized by severe restrictions in food intake which leads to a significantly low body weight and disturbance in the way that one sees oneself (i.e., they tend not to perceive themselves as underweight and think that they should still lose even more weight). Bulimia is characterized by binge eating and engaging in some form of compensatory behaviour (e.g., self-induced vomiting, use of laxatives, etc.) and is not typically associated with significant weight loss as occurs in anorexia.

Somatic Symptom and Related Disorders

Disorders with prominent somatic symptoms (e.g., physical symptoms, bodily complaints) are included in this section. Somatic symptom disorder involves the presence of one or more somatic symptom which results in significant anxiety, disproportionate thoughts about the seriousness of symptoms, or excessive time or energy devoted to these symptoms. Another disorder in this section is illness anxiety disorder where a person is preoccupied with the belief that they have a serious illness despite medical reassurance or negative diagnostic tests.

Obsessive-Compulsive and Related Disorders

Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD) involves obsessions (recurrent and persistent unwanted thoughts) and/or compulsions (repetitive behaviours the person carries out in response to the obsession - e.g., cleaning, counting, ordering, etc.). Other disorders in this category are characterised by recurrent body-focused repetitive behaviours - e.g., hair pulling, skin picking, etc.

Dissociative Disorders

Dissociation is a state where a person experiences disruption between conscious awareness and memory, perception and identity. Many of us have experienced mild states of dissociation (e.g., driving on auto-pilot, feeling as if you are in a dream even though you know you are awake, etc.). Dissociative disorders involve dissociative states that are more extreme and longer-lasting. For example, in dissociative amnesia, the person may forget who they are. And in dissociative identity disorder (once called multiple personality disorder) the person may appear to have two or more distinct personality states or identities.

Disruptive, Impulse-Control, and Conduct Disorders

Here we have a group of disorders that are all thought to involve problems in self-control of one's own emotions and behaviours. Some of these conditions appear to involve poorly controlled behaviours that lead to the violation of the rights of others (e.g., conduct disorder where the person may bully others, engage in fights, steal from others, etc.). Other disorders here involve the inability to control an impulse related to one specific behaviour (e.g., fire setting as is the case in the disorder pyromania).

Neurodevelopmental Disorders

Neurodevelopmental disorders are conditions that have an onset in the developmental period. Although these conditions are sometimes not diagnosed until later in life, it is thought that the onset is typically during early childhood. Some of the specific neurodevelopmental disorders listed in the DSM-5 include intellectual disability, autism spectrum disorder, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder and learning disorder.

Personality Disorders

Personality disorders are where there is an enduring pattern of inner experience and behaviour that deviates from the person's culture, is pervasive and inflexible, and leads to distress or impairment. There are ten personality disorders included in DSM-5 (e.g., borderline, antisocial, paranoid, schizoid, etc.)

Schizophrenia Spectrum and Other Psychotic Disorders

Psychotic disorders are defined, in part, by the presence of delusions (false beliefs) and hallucinations (false perceptions). There are a number of other symptoms that may also occur in the psychotic disorders including disorganized speech, thinking and behaviour, cognitive impairment, decreased motivation and diminished emotional expression. The onset for psychosis generally, and schizophrenia in particular, is typically in late adolescence and young adulthood.

Sexual Dysfunctions

Sexual dysfunctions involve a disturbance in the sexual response (e.g., inability to become aroused or to reach orgasm). Some of the specific conditions listed in this section include erectile disorder, female orgasmic disorder, female sexual interest/arousal disorder and male hypoactive sexual desire disorder.

Anxiety Disorders

The anxiety disorders include conditions that involve the experience of excessive fear and anxiety which often leads to a pattern of avoidance. Phobias of specific object or situations (e.g., animal phobias, fear of heights, etc.) are included in this section as are phobias specific to social situations (social phobia or social anxiety disorder). Another anxiety disorder is panic disorder in which a person experiences recurrent and unexpected panic attacks which then may lead to a significant change in a person's behaviour (i.e., limits activities, avoids going out, etc.).

Bipolar and Related Disorders

The bipolar disorders involve a disturbance in mood regulation. In bipolar I disorder (which used to be referred to as manic depression), the person will experience mood states which alternate between "highs" (mania) and "lows" (depression). Other disorders here included bipolar II and cyclothymia which involve less pronounced "highs" relative to what is seen with bipolar I disorder.

Paraphilic Disorders

The paraphilias involve anomalous sexual preferences. A few of the specific paraphilic disorders listed here include pedophilic disorder (sexual focus on children), exhibitionistic disorder (exposing one's genitals) and sexual sadism (inflicting humiliation, bondage or suffering). The DSM-5 distinguishes between having a paraphilia and a paraphilic disorder - i.e., for a paraphilia to be classified as a disorder, it must cause distress or impairment to the individual or entailed personal harm, or risk of harm, to others.

Substance-Related and Addictive Disorders

The substance-related disorders encompass many different classes of drugs including alcohol, cannabis, hallucinogens, caffeine, tobacco, opioids, stimulants and sedatives. For these substances a person may have a disorder relating to problematic use, intoxication or withdrawal. Gambling disorder has also been included in this section as a non-substance related addictive disorder.

Sleep-Wake Disorders

There are a range of different disorders in this category which all involve some type of disturbance in the sleep-wake cycle. Here is a list of a few of the disorders included here: insomnia, hypersomnia, narcolepsy, restless leg syndrome, and nightmare disorder

Trauma- and Stressor-Related Disorders

This group of disorders all relate to changes seen following exposure to a traumatic or stressful event. Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is included in this section which involves a range of changes to thoughts, emotions and behaviour following exposure to a traumatic event. A person with a diagnosis of PTSD may, for example, experience nightmares, try to avoid anything that reminds them of the trauma, feel detached from others and devoid of positive feeling, and experience problems with concentration and sleep.

Gender Dysphoria

This section includes one overarching diagnosis of gender dysphoria with separate criteria for children and for adolescents and adults. In general, this condition involves distress that results from incongruence between experienced and assigned gender (e.g., a strong desired to be of the other gender). When gender dysphoria continues into adulthood, a person may seek out physical interventions such as sex reassignment surgery and/or hormonal therapies.

Depressive Disorders

This section of the DSM-5 also includes disorders involving problems with mood but here the mood disturbance is that of experiencing the "lows". Major depressive disorder is included in this section and is one of the most common of all the mental disorders. This disorder involves pronounced feelings of sadness/hopelessness or loss of interest or pleasure in almost everything. There are a range of other changes a person with this disorder may experience including changes in sleep, changes in appetite, fatigue, diminished ability to think and sometimes there are thoughts of suicide.