Deconstructing Bipolar Disorder: A Critical Review of its Diagnostic Validity and a Proposal for DSM-V and ICD-11

The development of Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition, and International Classification of Diseases, Eleventh Edition, deserves a significant conceptual step forward. There is a clear need to improve and refine the current diagnostic criteria, but also to introduce dimensions, perhaps not as an alternative but rather as a useful complement to categorical diagnosis. Laboratory, family, and treatment response data should also be systematically included in the diagnostic assessment when available. We have critically reviewed the content, concurrent, discriminant, and predictive validity of bipolar disorder, and to overcome the validity problems of the current classifications of mental disorders, we propose a modular system which may integrate categorical and dimensional issues, laboratory data, associated nonpsychiatric medical conditions, psychological assessment, and social issues in a comprehensive and nevertheless practical approach.