TPC-Journal-V4-Issue3

The Professional Counselor \Volume 4, Issue 3 182 multiaxial system was holistic in that it provided a way of noting prominent psychiatric conditions, maladaptive personality functioning, medical conditions, relevant stressors and environmental problems, and overall functioning. What will prompt clinicians to consider these important domains remains unclear. Noting V codes and assessing disability using the WHODAS 2.0 may be an alternative. However, these tasks are not required in the diagnostic workup and, if history is any guide, will probably be underutilized. A second consideration is that consilience with the ICD clearly makes the DSM-5 a “medical classification” (APA, 2013, p. 10) and as David Kupfer, the Task Force Chair of DSM-5 , has put it, “psychiatric disorders are medical disorders” (Kupfer et al., 2013, p. 388). The DSM espouses that it is atheoretical (APA, 2013; Lilienfeld et al., 2013), but the momentum is clearly swinging toward the central role of biological factors. This risks a reductionistic conceptualization of mind as simply brain. Alternative perspectives that recognize the importance of contextual, psychological, developmental and cultural factors, fundamental to the mental health counseling tradition (Gintner & Mears, 2009), may suffer as a result. The picture is more ominous considering the National Institute of Mental Health’s initiative, Research Domain Criteria (RDoC), designed to develop the next generation of psychiatric classification based upon underlying etiology of “brain disorders” (p. 749) and the identification of biomarkers (e.g., laboratory tests) to direct treatment selection (Insel et al., 2010). The direction in which the diagnostic train is heading is clear. The question is whether the track can be altered to one that is more balanced and biopsychosocial. A third concern is that efforts to harmonize the manuals do not address many of the disparities between DSM-5 and ICD-9 or ICD-10 . This is particularly true of the new disorders that DSM-5 has added, which lack clear ICD-9 or ICD-10 counterparts. The ICD codes that have been selected often do not map well onto these disorders. For example, the code for DSM-5 ’s hoarding disorder translates to ICD-9 ’s and ICD-10 ’s obsessive- compulsive disorder (OCD). Ironically, hoarding disorder was added because research showed that 80% of the time individuals with this condition did not meet criteria for OCD. As another example, binge eating disorder was added to DSM-5 to recognize individuals who had a pattern of maladaptive bingeing episodes, but did not have the compensatory behaviors (e.g., purging) characteristic of bulimia nervosa. The ICD code selected for this disorder was, nevertheless, bulimia nervosa. Because ICD is updated annually, it may be that more appropriate codes will be made available in future years. Thus, while ICD-DSM consilience has occurred, at least to this point, it has been superficial and restricted to the nonaxial formatting of the diagnosis. Clearly, it may enhance the curb appeal of DSM-5 to the medical community, but the real interior renovation is yet to occur, awaiting ICD-11 . Clinical Implications The demise of the multiaxial system means that mental health counselors must be more intentionally biopsychosocial in their diagnostic assessments. More meat can be put on the bare-bones nonaxial system by systematically assessing these biological, psychological and sociocultural factors. This can be accomplished by always assessing whether any important contextual factors can be noted using the V codes, which will be termed Z codes when ICD-10 goes into effect. The WHODAS 2.0, the retired GAF, and other functioning measures can be recruited to assess impairment. While these measures are not part of the formal diagnosis, they can be noted in the chart and inform treatment planning. Many insurance companies require a multiaxial diagnosis. The GAF score was often used to justify level of care. At the time of this writing, it is not clear what insurance companies will do with these modifications. The decision here will be important. What insurance companies require, for better or worse, often has profound impact on what clinicians do and the kind of clinical care they deliver.