Whats so “statistical” about the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders?
The word “statistical” in the name of the manual is a throwback to one of the original uses of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) —to facilitate the collection of hospital statistics in the early 1950’s and 1960’s. Although psychiatric diagnoses are still an important part of record keeping, the primary use of the DSM is now “diagnostic.” For historical reasons, we have kept the name DSM.
