The Validity of Psychiatric Diagnosis Revisited: The Clinician's Guide to Improve the Validity of Psychiatric Diagnosis.

Background: The authors reviewed the types and phases of validity of psychiatric diagnosis. In 1970, Robins and Guze proposed five phases to achieve valid classification of mental disorders: clinical description, laboratory study, exclusion of other disorders, follow-up study, and family study.

Objectives: The objectives of this paper are to review what has been learned since Robins and Guze's influential article as well as examine the impact of the new discoveries in neurosciences and neuroimaging on the practicing clinician.