Psychiatric classification: Current debate and future directions

• Psychiatric classification has reasonable reliability but poor validity.
• Validity needs to be improved without losing on reliability.
• Etiologically based classifications are the need of the hour.
• Research domain criteria approach appears to be a promising venture.

Classification of health related conditions can be a complex task. This is particularly so in case of psychiatric disorders. The present paper reviews the fundamentals of psychiatric classification, including its basis, history, methods of evaluation, the journey so far and future directions. The various criticisms of current classificatory systems and possible solutions are discussed. Special reference to the research domain criteria (RDoC) approach has been made and implications discussed.