The process that resulted in the diagnostic criteria for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (5th ed., DSM-5, American Psychiatric Association, 2013) was empirically based and rigorous. There was a high threshold for any changes in any DSM-IV diagnostic criterion. The process is described in this article. The rationale is presented...

The Life Events Checklist for DSM-5 (LEC-5) is a self-report measure designed to screen for potentially traumatic events in a respondent's lifetime. The LEC-5 assesses exposure to 16 events known to potentially result in PTSD or distress and includes one additional item assessing any other extraordinarily stressful event not captured in the first 16 items.

The greater emphasis on scientific evidence and the high threshold for changing any criterion in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual for Mental Disorders (4th ed., DSM-IV) probably account for many key differences between the DSM-5 and the International Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems (11th ver., ICD-11) with regard to diagnostic criteria for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Important questions about PTSD remain that can only be settled by future research.

The rationale, research literature, and proposed changes to the dissociative disorders and conversion disorder in the fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5) are presented. Dissociative identity disorder will include reference to possession as well as identity fragmentation, to make the disorder more applicable to culturally diverse situations. Dissociative amnesia will include dissociative fugue as a subtype, since fugue is a rare disorder that always involves amnesia but does not always include confused wandering or loss of personality identity.