DB 4 – Chapter Three: Topic – Schizophrenia

The ICD-10

Classification

of Mental and

Behavioural

Dis s

Diagnostic

criteria

for research

World Health Organization

Geneva

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The ICD-10

Classification

of Mental and

Behavioural

Dis s

Diagnostic

criteria

for research

World Health Organization

Geneva

1993

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Contents

Preface

Acknowledgements

Notes for users

ICD-10 Chapter V(F) and associated diagnostic instruments

List of categories

Diagnostic criteria for research

Annex 1. Provisional criteria for selected dis s

Annex 2. Culture-specific dis s

List of individual experts

List of field trial coordinating centres, field trial centres reporting

to them, and directors

Index

INTRODUCTION

In the early 1960s, the Mental Health Programme of the World Health Organization (WHO) became actively

engaged in a programme aiming to improve the diagnosis and classification of mental dis s. At that time, WHO

convened a series of meetings to review knowledge, actively involving representatives of different disciplines, various

schools of thought in psychiatry, and all parts of the world in the programme. It stimulated and conducted research on

criteria for classification and for reliability of diagnosis, and produced and promulgated procedures for joint rating of

videotaped interviews and other useful research methods. Numerous proposals to improve the classification of mental

dis s resulted from the extensive consultation process, and these were used in drafting the Eighth Revision of the

International Classification of Diseases (ICD-8). A glossary defining each category of mental dis in ICD-8 was also

developed. The programme activities also resulted in the establishment of a network of individuals and centres who

continued to work on issues related to the improvement of psychiatric classification (1,2).

The 1970s saw further growth of interest in improving psychiatric classification worldwide. Expansion of

international contacts, the undertaking of several international collaborative studies, and the availability of new treatments

all contributed to this trend. Several national psychiatric bodies encouraged the development of specific criteria for

classification in to improve diagnostic reliability. In particular, the American Psychiatric Association developed

and promulgated its Third Revision of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual, which incorporated operational criteria into

its classification system.

In 1978, WHO entered into along-term collaborative project with the Alcohol, Drug Abuse and Mental Health

Administration (ADAMHA) in the USA, aiming to facilitate further improvements in the classification and diagnosis of

mental dis s, and alcohol- and drug-related problems (3). A series of workshops brought together scientists from a

number of different psychiatric traditions and cultures, reviewed knowledge in specified areas, and developed

recommendations for future research. A major international conference on classification and diagnosis was held in

Copenhagen, Denmark, in 1982 to review the recommendations that emerged from these workshops and to outline a

research agenda and guidelines for future work (4).

Several major research efforts were undertaken to implement the recommendations of the Copenhagen

conference. One of them, involving centres in 17 countries, had as its aim the development of the Composite

International Diagnostic Interview, an instrument suitable for conducting epidemiological studies of mental dis s in

general population groups in different countries (5). Another major project focused on developing an assessment

instrument suitable for use by clinicians (Schedules for Clinical Assessment in Neuropsychiatry) (6). Still another study

was initiated to develop an instrument for the assessment of personality dis s in different countries (the International

Personality Dis Examination) (7).

In addition, several lexicons have been, or are being, prepared to provide clear definitions of terms (8). A

mutually beneficial relationship evolved between these projects and the work on definitions of mental and behavioral

dis s in the Tenth Revision of the International Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems (ICD-10) (9).

Converting diagnostic criteria into

diagnostic algorithms incorporated in the assessment instruments was useful in uncovering inconsistencies, ambiguities

and overlap and allowing their removal. The work on refining the ICD-10 also helped to shape the assessment

instruments. The final result was a clear set of criteria for ICD-10 and assessment instruments which can produce data

necessary for the classification of dis s according to the criteria included in Chapter V (F) of ICD-10.

The Copenhagen conference also recommended that the viewpoints of the different psychiatric traditions be

presented in publications describing the origins of the classification in the ICD-10. This resulted in several major

publications, including a volume that contains a series of presentations highlighting the origins of classification in

contemporary psychiatry (10).

The Clinical descriptions and diagnostic guidelines was the first of a series of publications developed from

Chapter V (F) of ICD-10 (11). This publication was the culmination of the efforts of numerous people who have

contributed to it over many years. The work has gone through several major drafts, each prepared after extensive

consultation with panels of experts, national and international psychiatric societies, and individual consultants. The draft

in use in 1987 was the basis of field trials conducted in some 40 countries, which constituted the largest ever research

effort of its type designed to improve psychiatric diagnosis (12,13). The results of the trials were used in finalizing the

clinical guidelines.

The text presented here has also been extensively tested (14), involving researchers and clinicians in 32 countries.

A list of these is given at the end of the book together with a list of people who helped in drafting texts or

commented on them. Further texts will follow: they include a version for use by general health care workers, a

multiaxial presentation of the classification, a series of ‘fascicles’ dealing in more detail with special problems (e.g. a

fascicle on the assessment and classification of mental retardation) and “crosswalks” – allowing cross-reference between

corresponding terms in ICD-10, ICD-9 and ICD-8.

Use of this publication is described in the Notes for Users. The Appendix provides suggestions for diagnostic

criteria which could be useful in research on several conditions which do not appear as such in the ICD-10 (except as

index terms) and crosswalks allowing the translation of ICD-10 into ICD-9 and ICD-8 terms. The Acknowledgements

section is of particular significance since it bears witness to the vast number of individual experts and institutions, all over

the world, who actively participated in the production of the classification and the various texts that accompany it. All

the major traditions and schools of psychiatry are represented, which gives this work its uniquely international character.

The classification and the guidelines were produced and tested in many languages; the arduous process of ensuring

equivalence of translations has resulted in improvements in the clarity, simplicity and logical structure of the texts in

English and in other languages.

The ICD-10 proposals are thus a product of collaboration, in the true sense of the word, between very many

individuals and agencies in numerous countries. They were produced in the hope that they will serve as a strong support

to the work of the many who are concerned with caring for the mentally ill and their families, worldwide.

No classification is ever perfect: further improvements and simplifications should become possible with increases

in our knowledge and as experience with the classification accumulates. The task of collecting and digesting comments

and reasults of tests of the classification will remain largely on the shoulders of the centres that collaborated with WHO in

the development of the classification. Their addresses are listed below because it is hoped that they will continue to be

involved in the improvement of the WHO classifications and associated materials in the future and to assist the

Organization in this work as generously as they have so far.

Numerous publications have arisen from Field Trial Centers describing results of their studies in connection with

ICD-10. A full list of these publications and reprints of the articles can be obtained from WHO, Division of Mental

Health, Geneva.

A classification is a way of seeing the world at a point in time. There is no doubt that scientific progress and

experience with the use of these guidelines will require their revision and updating. I hope that such revisions will be the

product of the same cordial and productive worldwide scientific collaboration as that which has produced the current text.

Norman Sartorius,

Director, Division of Mental Health

World Health Organization

References

1. Kramer M et al. The ICD-9 classification of mental dis s: a review of its development and contents. Acta

psychiatrica scandinavica, 1979, 59: 241-262.

2. Sartorius N. Classification: an international perspective. Psychiatric annals, 1976, 6: 22-35.

3. Jablensky A et al. Diagnosis and classification of mental dis s and alcohol- and drug-related problems: a

research agenda for the 1980s. Psychological medicine, 1983, 13: 907-921.

4. Mental dis s, alcohol- and drug-related problems: international perspectives on their diagnosis and

classification. Amsterdam, Excerpta Medica, 1985 (International Congress Series, No. 669).

5. Robins L et al. The composite international diagnostic interview. Archives of general psychiatry, 1989, 45:

1069-1077.

6. Wing JK et al. SCAN: Schedules for clinical assessment in neuropsychiatry. Archives of general psychiatry,

1990, 47: 589-593.

7. Loranger AW et al. The WHO/ADAMHA International Pilot Study of Personality Dis s. Archives of

general psychiatry (in press).

8. Loranger AW et al. The WHO/ADAMHA International Pilot Study of Personality Dis s: background and

purpose. Journal of personality dis s, 1991, 5: 296-306.

9. Lexicon of psychiatric and mental health terms. Vol. I. Geneva, World Health Organization, 1989.

10. International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems. Tenth Revision. Vol. 1:

Tabular list. Vol. 2: Instruction manual. Vol. 3: Index. Geneva, World Health Organization, 1992.

11. Sartorius N et al., eds. Sources and traditions in classification in psychiatry. Toronto, Hegrefe and Huber, 1990.

12. The ICD-10 Classification of Mental and Behavioural Dis s. Clinical descriptions and diagnostic

guidelines. Geneva, World Health Organization, 1992.

13. Sartorius N et al., eds. Psychiatric classification in an international perspective. British journal of psychiatry,

1988, 152 (Suppl.).

14. Sartorius N et al. Progress towards achieving a common language in psychiatry: results from the field trials of the

clinical guidelines accompanying the WHO Classification of Mental and Behavioural Dis s in ICD-10.

Archives of general psychiatry, 1993, 50: 115-124.

15. Sartorius N et al. Progress towards achieving a common language in psychiatry. II: Diagnostic criteria for

research for ICD-10 Mental and Behavioural Dis s. Results from the international field trials. American

journal of psychiatry (in press).

Acknowledgements

Many individuals and organizations have contributed to the production of the classification of mental and behavioural

dis s in ICD-10 and to the development of the texts that accompany it. The Acknowledgements section of the ICD-

10 Clinical descriptions and diagnostic guidelines1 contains a list of researchers and clinicians in some 40 countries who

participated in the trials of that document. A similar list is provided on pages xx-xx of this work. It is clearly impossible

to list all those who have helped in the production of the texts and in their testing, but every effort has been made to

include at least all those whose contributions were central to the creation of the documents that make up the ICD-10

“family” of classifications and guidelines.

Dr A. Jablensky, then Senior Medical Officer in the Division of Mental Health of WHO in Geneva, coordinated the first

part of the programme, and thus made a major contribution to the development of the proposals for the text of the criteria.

After the proposals for the classification had been assembled and circulated for comment to WHO expert panels and

many other individuals, an amended version of the classification was produced for field tests. Tests were conducted

according to a protocol produced by WHO staff with the help of Dr J.E. Cooper and other consultants mentioned below,

and involved a large number of centres (listed on pages xx-xx) whose work was coordinated by Field Trial Coordinating

Centres. The Coordinating Centres, listed below and on pages xx-xx, also undertook the task of producing equivalent

versions of Diagnostic criteria for research in the languages used in their countries.

————-
1 The ICD-10 Classification of Mental and Behavioural Dis s. Clinical

descriptions and diagnostic guidelines. Geneval, World Health Organization,

1992.

Dr N. Sartorius had overall responsiblity for the work on classification of mental and behavioural dis s in

ICD-10 and for the production of accompanying documents.

Throughout the work on the ICD-10 documents, Dr J. E. Cooper acted as a chief consultant to the project and

provided invaluable guidance and help to the WHO coordinating team. Among the team members were Dr J. van

Drimmelen, who has worked with WHO from the beginning of the process of developing ICD-10 proposals, Dr B. Üstün

who has made particularly valuable contributions during the field trials of the criteria and the analysis of the data they

produced. Mr A. L’Hours, technical officer, Strengthening of Epidemiological and Statistical Services, provided

generous support, ensuring compliance between the ICD-10 development in general and the production of this

classification. Mrs J. Wilson conscientiously and efficiently handled the innumerable administrative tasks linked to the

field tests and other activities related to the project. Mrs Ruthbeth Finerman, associated professor in anthropology,

provided the information upon which Appendix 2: Culture-specific dis s, is based.

A number of other consultants, including Dr A. Bertelsen, Dr H. Dilling, Dr J. Lopez-Ibor, Dr C. Pull, Dr D.

Regier, Dr M. Rutter and Dr N. Wig, were also closely involved in this work, functioning not only as heads of FTCCs for

the field trials but also providing advice and guidance about issues in their area of expertise and relevant to the psychiatric

traditions of the groups of countries about which they were particularly knowledgeable.

Among the agencies whose help was of vital importance were the Alcohol, Drug Abuse and Mental Health

Administration in the USA, which provided generous support to the activities preparatory to the drafting of ICD-10, and

which ensured effective and productive consultation between groups working on ICD-10 and those working on the fourth

revision of the American Psychiatric Association’s Diagnostic Statistical Manual (DSM-IV) classification. Close direct

collaboration with the chairmen and the work groups of the APA task force in DSMIV chaired by Dr A. Frances allowed

an extensive exchange of views and helped in ensuring compatibility between the texts. Invaluable help was also

provided by the WHO Advisory Committee on ICD-10, chaired by Dr E. Strömgren; the World Psychiatric Association

and its special committee on classification, the World Federation for Mental Health, the World Association for

Psychosocial Rehabilitation, the World Association of Social Psychiatry, the World Federation of Neurology, the

International Union of Psychological Societies, and the WHO Collaborating Centres for Research and Training in Mental

Health, located in some 40 countries, were particularly useful in the collection of commments and suggestions from their

parts of the world.

Governments of WHO Member States, including in particular Belgium, Germany, the Netherlands, Spain and the

USA, also provided direct support to the process of developing the classification of mental and behavioural dis s,

both through their designated contributions to WHO and through contributions and financial support to the centres that

participated in this work.

Field Trial Coordinating Centres and Directors:

Dr A. Bertelsen, Institute of Psychiatric Demography, Psychiatric Hospital, University of Aarhus, 8240 Risskov,

Denmark

Dr D. Caetano, Department of Psychiatry, Universidade Estadual de Campinas

Caixa Postal 1170, 13100 Campinas, S.P., Brazil

Dr S. Channabasavanna, National Institute of Mental Health and Neuro Sciences, P.O. Box 2979, Bangalore 560029,

India

Dr H.Dilling, Klinik für Psychiatrie der Medizinischen Hochschule, Ratzeburger Allee 160, 2400 Lübeck, Germany

Dr M. Gelder, Department of Psychiatry, Oxford University Hospital,

Warneford Hospital, Old Road, Headington, Oxford, United Kingdom

Dr D. Kemali, Istituto di Psichiatria, Prima Facoltà Medica, Università di Napoli, Largo Madonna della Grazie, 80138

Napoli, Italy

Dr J.J. Lopez Ibor Jr., Clinica Lopez Ibor, Av. Nueva Zelanda 44

Puerto de Hierro, Madrid 35, Spain

Dr G. Mellsop, The Wellington Clinical School, Wellington Hospital, Wellington 2, New Zealand

Dr Y. Nakane, Department of Neuropsychiatry, Nagasaki University, School of Medicine, 7-1 Sakamoto-Machi,

Nagasaki 852, Japan

Dr A. Okasha, Department of Psychiatry, Ain Shams University, 3 Shawarby Street, Kasr-El-Nil, Cairo, Egypt

Dr Ch. Pull, Service de Neuropsychiatrie, Centre Hospitalier de Luxembourg, 4, rue Barblé, Luxembourg, Luxembourg

Dr D. Regier, Director, Division of Clinical Research, Room 10-105, National Institute of Mental Health, 5600 Fishers

Lane, Rockville, Md. 20857, USA

Dr S. Tzirkin, All Union Research Centre of Mental Health, Institute of Psychiatry, Academy of Medical Sciences,

Zagorodnoye Shosse d.2, Moscow 113152

USSR

Dr Xu Tao-Yuan, Department of Psychiatry, Shanghai Psychiatric Hospital, 600 Wan Ping Nan Lu, Shanghai, People’s

Republic of China

Former Directors of FTCCs:

Dr J. Cooper, Department of Psychiatry, Queen’s Medical Centre, Clifton Boulevard, Nottingham NG7 2UH, United

Kingdom

Dr R. Takahashi, Department of Psychiatry, Tokyo Medical and Dental University, 5-45 Yushima, 1-Chome, Bunkyo-

ku, Tokyo, Japan

Dr N. Wig, Regional Adviser for Mental Health, World Health Organization Regional

Office for the Eastern Mediterranean, P.O. Box 1517, Alexandria 21511, Egypt

Dr Young Derson, Hunan Medical College, Changsha, Hunan, China

NOTES FOR USERS

1. The Diagnostic Criteria for Research accompanying the ICD-10 (DCR-10) are designed for use in research;

their content is derived from the Glossary to the chapter on Mental and Behavioural Dis s in the ICD-10

(Chapter V(F)). They provide specific criteria for diagnoses contained in the “Clinical Descriptions and

Diagnostic Guidelines” (CDDG) that have been produced for general clinical and educational use by

psychiatrists and other mental health professionals (WHO 1992).

2. Although completely compatible with the Glossary in ICD-10 and the CDDG, the DCR-10 have a different

style and lay-out. Researchers using the DCR-10 should first make themselves familiar with the CDDG, since

the DCR-10 are not designed to be used alone. The DCR-10 do not contain the descriptions of the clinical

concepts upon which the research criteria are based, nor any comments on commonly associated features

which, although not essential for diagnosis, may well be relevant for both clinicians and researchers. These

are to be found, for each dis in turn, in the CDDG. The introductory chapters of the CDDG also contain

information and comments that are relevant for both clinical and research uses of the ICD-10. It is presumed

that anyone using the DCR-10 will have a copy of the CDDG.

3. In addition to the obvious differences in lay-out and detail between the DCR-10 and the CDDG, there are

some other differences between them that need to be appreciated before the DCR-10 can be used

satisfactorily.

a) The DCR-10, like other published diagnostic criteria for research, are purposefully restrictive in that their use

allows the selection

of groups of subjects whose symptoms and other characteristics resemble each other in clearly stated ways. This

increases the likelihood of obtaining homogenous groups of patients but limits the generalizations that can be

made. Researchers wishing to study the overlap of dis s or the best way to define boundaries between

them may therefore need to supplement the criteria so as to allow the inclusion of atypical cases depending

upon the purposes of the study.

b) With a few exceptions, it is not appropriate to provide detailed criteria for the “other” (.8) categories in the

overall classification of Chapter V F, and by definition it is never appropriate for “unspecified” (.9).

Appendix 1 (pxx) contains suggestions for criteria for some of these exceptions; their placement in an

Appendix implies that although their present status is somewhat controversial or tentative, further research on

them is to be encouraged.

c) Similarly, there is no requirement for extensive rules on mutual exclusions and co-morbidity in a set of

diagnostic criteria for research, since different research projects have varied requirements for these, depending

upon their aims. Some of the more frequently used and obvious exclusion clauses have been included in the

DCR-10 as a reminder and for the convenience of users, and if required more can be found in the CDDG.

4. The general ICD rule of not using interference with social role performance as a diagnostic criterion has been

followed in the DCR-10 as far as possible. There are a few unavoidable exceptions, the most

obvious being Dementia, Simple Schizophrenia and Dissocial Personality Dis . Once the decision had been

made to include these somewhat controversial dis s in the classification, it was considered best to do

so without modifying the concepts. Experience and further research

should show whether these decisions were justified.

For many of the dis s of childhood and adolescence, some form of interference with social behaviour and

relationships is included amongst the diagnostic criteria. At first sight this appears to go against the general

ICD rule that interference with the performance of social roles should not be used as defining characteristics

of dis s or diseases. But a close examination of the disturbances that are being classified in F8 and F9

shows that social criteria are needed because of the more complicated and interactive nature of the subject

matter. Children often show general misery and frustration, but rarely produce specific complaints and

symptoms equivalent to those that characterise the more individually conceptualised dis s of adults.

Many of the dis s in F8 and F9 are joint disturbances which can only be described by indicating how roles

within the family, school or peer group are affected.

The problem is apparent rather than real, and is caused by the use of the term “dis ” for all the sections of Chapter

V(F). The term is used to cover many varieties of disturbance, and different types of disturbance need

different types of information to describe them.

5. For the same reasons as given in 3c), definitions of remission, relapse, and duration of episodes have been

provided in the DCR-10 in only a limited number of instances. Further suggestions will be found in the

Lexicon of terms to Chapter V (F) of ICD-10.

6. The criteria are labelled with letters or numbers to indicate their place in a hierarchy of generality and

importance. General criteria that must be fulfilled by all members of a group of dis s (such as the general

criteria for all varieties of dementia, or for the main types of schizophrenia) are labelled with a capital G, plus

a number. Obligatory

criteria for individual dis s are labelled by capitals only (A,B,C, etc.). Ordinary numbers (1,2,3, etc.) and lower

case letters (a,b, etc.) are used to identify further groups and sub-groups of characteristics, of which only some

are required for the diagnosis. To avoid the use of “and/or”, when it is specified that either of two criteria is

required, then it is always assumed that the presence of both criteria also satisfies the requirement.

7. When the DCR-10 are used in research on patients who also suffer from neurological dis s, researchers

may wish to use the Neurological Adaptation of the ICD-10 …