The DSM-IV-TR episode and course specifiers (also known as modifiers) provide a means of establishing sub-categories or variants within the psychiatric disorders and thus provide useful clinical information about anticipated illness course, prognosis, and selection of appropriate treatments.
The concept of predominant polarity utilized in this study is also limited due to the exclusion of mixed episodes as polarity specifiers.
This function permits specifiers to specified in a flexible manner.
Patients were further divided into subtypes (22 paranoid, 38 disorganized, 4 catatonic, 29 residual, and 9 undifferentiated), and classified as to longitudinal course specifiers (64 episodic, 31 continuous, 5 single episode, and 2 other or unspecified).
result-type -- a sequence type specifier, or nil.
The diagnosis or indication of a diagnosis of depression was recorded in 15 different ways at baseline assessment, the most common notation being "MDE or major depressive episode" (62%) with DSM-IV severity specifiers seldom used (<25%).
The replacement of the DSM-IV-TR diagnostic criteria for a mixed episode with the new 'With Mixed Features' specifier in DSM-5 demonstrates a growing recognition of the clinical relevance of subthreshold depression during mania.
Her discharge diagnosis was bipolar disorder, type I, current episode manic with psychotic features and a mixed-feature specifier.
The patient was hospitalized for 5 days and diagnosed with bipolar disorder, type I, current episode manic with psychotic features with a mixed-feature specifier.
The DSM-5 includes a 'with mixed features' specifier that applies to a manic or hypomanic episode with three or more depressive symptoms (or, alternatively, to a depressive episode with three or more manic symptoms) (American Psychiatric Association 2013).
