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Clinicians' judgments of clinical utility: a comparison of the DSM-IV and five-factor models.

Author
Abstract
:

Clinical utility, or the usefulness of a diagnostic system in clinical practice, has been identified as an important construct in proposed revisions to the diagnostic nomenclature and a significant limitation of dimensional models of personality disorder, such as the 5-factor model (FFM). Only 1 study to date has addressed explicitly the clinical utility of the FFM, and the findings suggested significant limitations. In the current study, 245 practicing psychologists described 3 historic cases using both the FFM and the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (4th ed.; DSM-IV; American Psychiatric Association, 2000) and then rated each model on 6 aspects of clinical utility. In contrast to prior research, the psychologists in this study considered the FFM to have greater clinical utility than the existing diagnostic categories.

Year of Publication
:
2006
Journal
:
Journal of abnormal psychology
Volume
:
115
Issue
:
2
Number of Pages
:
298-308
ISSN Number
:
0021-843X
URL
:
http://content.apa.org/journals/abn/115/2/298
DOI
:
10.1037/0021-843X.115.2.298
Short Title
:
J Abnorm Psychol
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