Diagnostic classification systems

Diagnosis should be an aid to communication. Its main purpose is to bring together illnesses that have the same features. Ideally, a diagnosis should identify disorders with the same underlying aetiology, the same course and the same response to treatment. However, most disorders have a multifactorial causation, and most risk factors can lead to several different types of disorder. Accordingly, diagnosis and classification of child psychopathology has increasingly focused on the presenting features of the disorder rather than its aetiology. The main current diagnostic schemes are ICD-10 and DSM-IV. Although the schemes differ in many ways, their overall classifications are very similar. Most children with psychiatric problems have multiple difficulties. There are five broad groupings of clinical psychiatric syndromes, the two most common being disruptive behavioural disorders and emotional disorders. This paper discusses the diagnosis of these syndromes as well as associated medical conditions, abnormal psychosocial situations and psychosocial disabilites.