A new diagnostic system for psychiatry

The objective of this work is to apply theoretical concepts from system the ories to psychiatry, and formulate a novel diagnostic system that will comb ine the advantages of descriptive diagnosis and biopsychosocial diagnosis i n psychiatry. Biopsychosocial factors and symptoms of mental disorders are described as instabilities and perturbations in a system (i.e. the nervous system). The author reviews certain basic concepts from system theories and applies them to clinical concepts in psychiatry. Biopsychosocial factors a re perceived as agitators of organization in the nervous system, and sympto ms are described as emergent properties out of these perturbations. A profi le of biopsychosocial factors is plotted to correlate with a profile of per turbations and their related symptoms. This agitator versus perturbation ma pping is advantageous as a diagnostic system for psychiatry. The proposed d iagnostic system is of value in dealing with the clinical complexity of men tal disorders, has a potential for increasing predictive validity in psychi atry, and may contribute to etiological brain research of mental disorders. (C) 2000 Harcourt Publishers Ltd.