Mental Health Disorder Testing - Colorado Springs & Denver
How the DSM-5 Defines a Mental Health Disorder
The DSM-5 defines a mental health disorder as a behavioral or psychological syndrome or pattern that occurs in an individual. This means symptoms may be identified through behavioral observations or the individual’s self-report of inner experience. The DSM-5 appears to avoid defining the etiology of mental health disorders, as research in the field has never defined a single pattern of brain or body functioning that can account for all possible presentations of each disorder. Instead, the DSM-5 states that a psycho-biological dysfunction is responsible for the disorder, and the resulting disorder causes clinically significant distress or impairment in one or more areas of life functioning. I personally prefer this atheoretical approach to defining mental illness. Unfortunately, we are not at a place within our field where we can definitely point to the cause of all mental health disorders (and there is definitely not a consensus amongst mental health providers).
What is Not Considered a Mental Health Disorder
Common Stress and Loss
In addition, the DSM-5 states that the causes of mental health disorders cannot be due to common stressors and losses. Because it is common to experience stress and negative emotional reactions to stressful life situations and losses of friends and loved ones, the DSM-5 advises mental health practitioners not to stigmatize or pathologize these reactions.
Substance Use and Medical Illness
Moreover, the DSM-5 states (for most mental health disorders) that substance use or medical illness cannot be the cause of the symptom presentation. For example, if someone experiences a temporary manic state due to cocaine use, the person should not be diagnosed with Bipolar Disorder. Or, if someone experiences depression due to hypothyroidism, the person should not be diagnosed with Major Depressive Disorder.
Categories of Mental Health Disorder in the DSM-5
There are many different mental health disorders defined within the DSM-5. The DSM-5 uses categories to group these disorders by shared features. I will relay the list of these categories in order to show all of the different disorders/disorder categories we must consider when conducting mental health testing and conceptualizing a diagnosis for an individual. The following is a list of the categories noted in the DSM-5:
- Neurodevelopmental disorders
- Schizophrenia spectrum and other psychotic disorders
- Bipolar and related disorders
- Depressive disorders
- Anxiety disorders
- Obsessive-compulsive and related disorders
- Trauma- and stressor-related disorders
- Dissociative disorders
- Somatic symptom and related disorders
- Feeding and eating disorders
- Elimination disorders
- Sleep-wake disorders
- Sexual dysfunctions
- Gender dysphoria
- Disruptive, impulse control, and conduct disorders
- Substance-related and addictive disorders
- Neurocognitive disorders
- Personality disorders
- Paraphilic disorders
- Other mental disorders
- Medication-induced movement disorders and other adverse effects of medication
- Other conditions that may be a focus of clinical attention
How Mental Health Testing Works
Gathering Information for an Accurate Diagnosis
In order to arrive at a correct diagnosis in mental health disorder testing, the clinician must gather as much information as possible about the individual. This usually entails conducting a clinical interview that collects information about symptom presentation and important life domains, disorder-specific questionnaires, personality testing, IQ testing (many clinicians use IQ testing during psychological testing, but some clinicians do not use IQ testing if they do not believe low IQ is present and can account for reported symptoms), and many other tests that are designed to detect mental health symptoms or impaired performance characteristics of various disorders.
A Tailored Approach to Test Selection
The clinician who works with you to complete psychological testing will utilize a tailored approach to test selection. Mental health disorder tests will be selected in order to best answer the question that has led you to pursue a psychological evaluation, as well as to provide accurate diagnosis and treatment recommendations.