Essentials of Psychiatric Diagnosis ─ Responding to the Challenge of DSM-5

Grounded in author Allen Frances's extensive clinical experience, this comprehensive yet concise guide helps the busy clinician find the right psychiatric diagnosis and avoid the many pitfalls that lead to errors. Covering every disorder routinely encountered in clinical practice, Frances provides the ICD-9-CM codes and (where feasible) ICD-10-CM codes required for billing, a useful screening question, a colorful descriptive prototype, lucid diagnostic tips, and a discussion of other disorders that must be ruled out. The book closes with an index of the most common presenting symptoms, listing possible diagnoses that must be considered for each. Frances was instrumental in the development of past editions of the DSM and provides helpful cautions on questionable aspects of DSM-5.

The revised edition features ICD-10-CM codes where feasible throughout the chapters, plus a Crosswalk to ICD-10-CM codes in the Appendix. The Appendix, links to further coding resources, and periodic updates can also be accessed at the companion website.

Allen Frances, MD, is a clinician, educator, researcher, and leading authority on psychiatric diagnosis. He chaired the DSM-IV Task Force, was a member of the Task Force that prepared DSM-III-R, and wrote the final version of the Personality Disorders section in DSM-III. The author of several hundred papers and more than a dozen books, most recently Saving Normal: An Insider's Revolt against Out-of-Control Psychiatric Diagnosis, DSM-5, Big Pharma, and the Medicalization of Ordinary Life, Dr. Frances is Professor Emeritus and former Chair of the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Duke University.