DSM-IV Sourcebook, Vol. 3

The book contains black-and-white illustrations.

The Task Force on DSM-IV and members of the DSM-IV Work Groups have chronicled their efforts and the results in the DSM-IV Sourcebook, which documents the rationale and empirical support for the text and criteria sets presented in DSM-IV. This third of four volumes concludes the DSM-IV literature reviews and summarizes the DSM-IV Work Group efforts that led to publication of the DSM-IV Options Book.

Each review contains the following six sections: Statement of the Issues—explicitly outlines the issues addressed in the review; Significance of the Issues—frames the importance of each issue and discusses its clinical and empirical significance; Methods—documents the extent to which the reviews were systematic and comprehensive in their coverage of the literature; Results—provides an objective and thorough summary of the findings most relevant to each issue; Discussion—addresses the implications of the clinical research findings for DSM-IV; and Recommendations—recommendations for DSM-IV based on the review of the literature.

DSM-IV Sourcebook, Volume 3, presents the reviews for

• Disorders Usually First Diagnosed in Infancy, Childhood, or Adolescence
• Eating Disorders
• The DSM-IV Multiaxial System
• Family Relational Problems
• Cultural Issues for DSM-IV

Michael J. Schrift

This is a new and comprehensive collection of literature reviews documenting the rationale and empirical support for the text and criteria sets presented in DSM-IV. The DSM-IV literature reviews are divided into three volumes covering all the important aspects regarding the reliability and validity of DSM-IV. The purpose of the sourcebooks, according to the editors, is to present to the public the process of the development of DSM-IV. It chronicles the efforts of the DSM-IV Work Groups in critically reviewing the empirical basis of the DSM-IV. The literature reviews also serve to identify gaps and inadequacies within the literature on questions of crucial importance to the DSM-IV Work Groups. The intended audience, although not specifically stated by the editors, are the users of DSM-IV. Anyone who wants to learn the hows and whys of the DSM-IV would benefit from this book. The book would be useful to research psychiatrists and psychologists, psychiatric residents and fellows, and other mental health workers who want to learn the empirical basis (or lack of one) for a particular DSM-IV diagnosis. The book has six sections divided into 54 chapters, including a useful index section. The book covers the topics of mood disorders, late luteal phase dysphoric disorder, anxiety disorders, personality disorders, psychiatric interface disorders (i.e., somatization disorder, hypochondriasis), and sexual disorders. Each review contains the following sections: statement of the issues, significance of the issues, methods, results, discussion, and recommendations. This is an excellent and comprehensive set of literature reviews that is a welcome addition to psychiatry. It shows the firmgrounding of psychiatric diagnoses on an empirical basis. I found that I would learn something new each time I read a review. It will certainly be a useful addition to my library.

Widiger, Thomas A., PhD (Univ of Kentucky); Frances, Allen J., MD (Duke Univ); Pincus, Harold Alan, MD (American Psychiatric Association); Ross, Ruth, MA; First, Michael B., MD; Davis, Wendy, EdM

The contributors represent the specialties of psychiatry and behavioral science, psychology, child psychology, pediatrics, neurology, and family and community medicine. Most are from academic medical centers, hospitals, and psychiatry institutes in the U.S., Canada, the U.K., Puerto Rico, Switzerland, and New Zealand. Institutions prominently represented include Columbia, Yale, UCLA, Cornell, Oregon Social Learning Center, Harvard, Univ of Pittsburgh, and Univ of Pennsylvania.