Cultural Sensitivity: ICD-10 Versus DSM-III-R

This study compared the International Classification of Diseases, 10th Revision (ICD-10) and the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual, Third Edition, Revised (DSM-III-R). Findings indicate that the ICD-10 has made great progress in widening the international scope of contemporary systems of classification in psychiatry while the DSM-III has not. The DSM-III is not based on extensive research with non-western populations and has never seen its mandate as being multi-cultural in scope. However, according to the authors, because it is used in a country with huge immigrant populations from vastly different cultural backgrounds, there are some potential cultural pitfalls with the DSM-III classification system (authors).