• The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) is the
handbook used as the authoritative guide to the diagnosis of mental
disorders by health care professionals in the United States and much of
the world. The DSM contains descriptions, symptoms, and other
diagnostic criteria for mental disorders.
• Substance use disorder was divided into two diagnoses in the DSM-IV:
substance abuse and substance dependence. In the DSM-5, these two
diagnoses were combined into one to create a single diagnostic category
of substance use disorder.
• In addition, the number of patient symptoms was used to create three
categories of disorder severity. A mild substance use disorder is defined
as 2-3 symptoms, a moderate substance use disorder as 4-5 symptoms,
and a severe substance use disorder as 6 or more symptoms.
• Patients in the DSM-IV only needed one symptom to be diagnosed with
substance abuse, whereas the DSM-5 requires two or more symptoms to
be present in order to be diagnosed with substance use disorder.
• The physiological subtype and the diagnosis of polysubstance
dependence were removed from the DSM-5.
