About the Measures

These measures should be used to enhance clinical decision-making and not as the sole basis for making a clinical diagnosis. Further information on these measures can be found in DSM–5. The measures can be broadly classified into four types:

1. Cross-cutting symptom measures may aid in a comprehensive mental status assessment by drawing attention to symptoms that are important across diagnoses. They are intended to help identify additional areas of inquiry that may guide treatment and prognosis. The cross-cutting measures have two levels: Level 1 questions are a brief survey of 13 domains for adult patients and 12 domains for child and adolescent patients, and Level 2 questions provide a more in-depth assessment of certain domains.
2. Severity measures are disorder-specific, corresponding closely to criteria that constitute the disorder definition. They may be administered to individuals who have received a diagnosis or who have a clinically significant syndrome that falls short of meeting full criteria. Some of the assessments are self-completed, whereas others require a clinician to complete.
3. The World Health Organization Disability Assessment Schedule, Version 2.0 (WHODAS 2.0) assesses a patient’s ability to perform activities in six areas: understanding and communicating; getting around; self-care; getting along with people; life activities (e.g., household, work/school); and participation in society. The scale is self- or informant-administered and corresponds to concepts contained in the WHO International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health.
4. The Personality Inventories for DSM–5 measure maladaptive personality traits in five domains: negative affect, detachment, antagonism, disinhibition, and psychoticism. For adults and children ages 11 and older, there are brief forms with 25 items and full versions with 220 items. A full version for informants is also available.