VA North Texas Health Care System
VANTHCS Selected as Field Trial Site for DSM-5 Upcoming Manual's Proposed Criteria
October 12, 2010
DALLAS, TX. – VA (Veterans Affairs) North Texas Health Care System has been selected as one of seven adult field trial sites to test proposed diagnostic criteria for the American Psychiatric Association's (APA) fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM). Used by health professionals around the world, DSM is the manual that provides descriptions, symptoms and other criteria for diagnosing mental disorders.
Under the direction of Carol North, M.D., director of the trauma and disaster program, and Alina Suris, PhD, clinical director of trauma services, VA North Texas Health Care System is participating in field trials to help assess the practical use of proposed DSM-5 criteria in real-world clinical settings.
"We are honored to be selected as one of the field trial sites," said principal investigator Dr. North. "Our role in the development of DSM-5 is a reflection of the Department of Veterans Affairs' standing in medical research, particularly in the field of psychiatry and mental disorders."
APA has reported that the selection process was very competitive; only 11 organizations were chosen from the 65 that submitted proposals to be considered for a field trial site.
Disorders being studied at VA North Texas Health Care System include post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), major depression, antisocial personality disorder, mild traumatic brain injury (TBI), and minor neurocognitive impairment. Clinicians participating in the field trial will evaluate new and existing patients at different stages of treatment using the proposed DSM-5 diagnostic criteria and measures.
The field trial design will address several important aspects of the proposed diagnostic criteria, including:
- Feasibility: are the proposed criteria easy for clinicians to understand and to use?
- Clinical Utility: do the proposed criteria do a good job in describing patients' psychiatric problems and help clinicians make decisions about treatment plans?
- Reliability: are the same conclusions reached consistently when the criteria are used by different clinicians?
- Validity: how accurately do the diagnostic criteria reflect the mental disorders they are designed to describe?
In addition, the field trials will test new tools that help clinicians evaluate the severity of symptoms, and whether patients are improving over time; as well as "cross-cutting dimensional assessments" that measure symptoms that occur across a wide range of diagnoses, such as sleep problems.
"The clinicians and researchers at VA North Texas Health Care System demonstrate the highest level of expertise in mental health research and clinical care," said David Kupfer, M.D., chair of the DSM-5 Task Force. "This field trial research is a part of a critical phase in development of DSM-5 and will give us the information we need to better understand how the proposed revisions affect clinicians' practices and, most importantly, patient care."
The field trials follow a public comment period in which more than 8,000 written comments on the draft diagnostic criteria were submitted to the DSM-5 web site by clinicians, researchers and family and patient advocates. Submitted comments were reviewed by DSM-5 Work Groups and resulted in further refinement of the criteria. The field trial results will help further refine the criteria and provide invaluable information for DSM-5, to be released in May 2013.
More information on all of the participating field trial sites and the specific disorders being tested is available on www.dsm5.org.
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The Mental Health program at VA North Texas Health Care System proudly serves Veterans with mental and emotional disorders in the Dallas, Fort Worth, Denton, Tyler, Sherman and Bonham areas. VA North Texas has one of the largest Comprehensive Homeless programs in the VA system and is proud to be part of VA's national effort to end homelessness for Veterans. We have a close working relationship with academic partner University of Texas Southwestern with 64 of our Psychiatrists and Psychologists holding faculty positions there.
