Mental health and substance use is a fascinating area of social work. The DSM is a tome that houses many answers to the LMSW exam- terminology, Use this chance to write 2-3 paragraphs as a reflection of what you have read or watched up to this point. Is there anything that stands out? Is there something new you've learned so far?

 

Evaluation of the Impact of Change from DSM-4 To DSM-5 on Mental Health and Substance Use

The diagnostic and statistic manual of Mental Health (DSM) provides a framework upon which the measurement criteria of substance use disorder are based. It was developed with the aim for collection of information about mental disorders in the USA. The manual was revised to DSM-5 in 2013, and several impacts have resulted from the transition. The revisions involved changes in the mental health and substance use disorder terminologies. The previous described two distinct disorders, alcohol abuse and dependence, thus providing a criterion for evaluation. The current DSM manual the above into one disorder with subsidiary classifications involving severe, moderate, and mild alcohol use disorders. The revisions further include changes in the diagnostics thresholds, with the previous version holding a distinct criterion for substance abuse, addiction, and dependence. In the current manual, anyone meeting the second to the eleventh criteria receives a diagnosis for alcohol use disorder. Further, the current manual, DSM-5, ignores legal issues and uses craving, addiction, and desire as a criterion for diagnosis for mental health and alcohol use disorder, which is missing in the previous manual (Livne et al., 2021).

Assessment of the criteria changes has shown that the previous manual-based statistics may fail to appreciate key concepts of the DSM-5 manual based on the substance being examined. The most common endorsement of a single kind of substance use disorder has shown that hallucinogens, alcohol, and pain reducers that have been prescribed have the greatest susceptance for the misclassifications of substance use disorder that have resulted from unevaluated criteria. Mental health surveillance studies of the DSM-4 manual provide an underestimation of the disorders included in the DSM-5 manual, resulting in greater ratios of false negatives in various algorithms used. Conclusively, the national statistics estimates remain consistent for the criteria with variations to certain degrees required for the previous criterion to be familiar and in line with the current manual criteria.