The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) is a guide for psychiatrists when diagnosing mental disorders. The latest manual is the fifth edition, DSM V, which was published in May of 2013, and provides updated descriptions, symptoms, and standardized criteria on how to diagnose mental disorders ( American Psychiatric Association 2013) . Among the listed mental disorders are patterns of behavioral symptoms which are expressed as abnormal actions, causing the individual to be distressed. Such undesired behavioral symptoms include dissociative, bipolar, anxiety, intellectual, and trauma disorders which are largely influenced by one’s life experiences. It is necessary to consider the ethical and cultural aspects of an individual when diagnosing and treating the behavioral health conditions.
Culture is a set of values and beliefs from which members of a particular society derive their identity and unique perception of the world. Various cultural practices and beliefs provide for different means of diagnosis and treatment of behavioral mental disorders ( Bhugra et al., 2018 ). For instance, the intellectual disorder may be a symptom of mental disorder to one community while to another it may be dismissed as a genetic trait in the family. It is, therefore, necessary that healthcare providers are familiar with a given community’s cultural practices and beliefs to offer effective diagnosis and treatment. The DSM-V provides a clinical tool that guides psychiatrists in compiling a comprehensive assessment of their patient’s cultural background.
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Diagnosis of mental disorders is considered as an essential step. It is during this stage that the psychiatrist gathers enough information to get a comprehensive assessment of the patient for the right treatment to be offered. Studies suggest that an individual’s behavior, either normal or abnormal, is acquired through various forms of conditioning such as operant, modeling, and classical ( Kring et al., 2016 ). Psychiatrists, as required by the DSM-V, should not assess the patient’s personality alone but should as well get a cultural perspective of the family, friends, and the community as well as the environment. However, the DSM-V suggests that behavioral health conditions cannot be diagnosed using laboratory tests, contrary to other studies that point laboratory testing as a strength of the behavioral model of mental disorders.
Ethnicity is an inherited status based on language, nationality, history, and ancestry. It is possible for people to be of the same ethnicity but have varying cultural practices and beliefs, based on the environment that one identifies with ( Chang et al., 2016 ). For instance, the black community in the U.S. may bear different cultural beliefs from other blacks in African states. That is to say that the behavior of an individual of a particular ethnicity should not be used to generalize the entire community’s behavior. It is, therefore, required of psychiatrists to consider an individual’s ethnicity when diagnosing behavioral mental disorders.
Ethnic minorities are often considered to be in greater need of psychiatric help more than other ethnic majorities. The thought enhances such an erroneous view that ethnic minorities are less advantaged in society; therefore, being more prone to psychiatric disorders. The DSM-V attempts to erase this erroneous view by encouraging ethnic components in psychiatric diagnosis for both the major and minor ethnicities ( Vanheule, 2017 ). Other studies have also suggested that ethnic psychiatry has played a great role in the diagnosis and treatment of inherited psychiatric disorders since it is not limited to race, culture, gender, and age only.
It is clear that cultural and ethnic considerations are not anything to forego when diagnosing and treating mental disorders. Cultural and ethnic psychiatry go a long way in accurately identifying the behavioral symptoms of an individual who has a mental disorder. Since behavior is mostly learned, treatment of abnormal behavioral health conditions includes replacement with appropriate behavior through behavioral therapies ( Hays, 2016). Such therapies include classical conditioning whereby the appropriate behavior is encouraged through a rewarding system while punishing the inappropriate behavior. Rarely are medications used in cultural and ethnic psychiatry.
References
American Psychiatric Association. (2013). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders . Arlington, VA: American Psychiatric Publishing.
Bhugra, D., Ventriglio, A., & Bhui, K. S. (2018). Practical, cultural psychiatry . Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Chang, E. C., Downey, C. A., Hirsch, J. K., & Lin, N. J. (2016). Positive psychology in racial and ethnic minority groups: Theory, research, and practice . Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.
Hays, P. A. (2016). Addressing cultural complexities in practice: Assessment, diagnosis, and therapy . Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.
Kring, A. M., Johnson, S. L., Davison, G. C., & Naele, J. M. (2016). Abnormal psychology . Hoboken, New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons Inc.
Vanheule, S. (2017). Psychiatric diagnosis revisited: From DSM to clinical case formulation . Cham : Palgrave Macmillan.
