The perceived clarity of the axis II criteria sets

The DSM-III-R personality disorders continue to be plagued by low diagnostic reliability. It has been suggested that the Axis II criteria sets themselves contribute to this low reliability by being unclear and poorly worded. To date there has been no direct empirical exploration of the perceived clarity of these criteria, in this study, groups of mental health professionals and lay persons rated the DSM-III-R FD criteria and the criteria for major depressive disorder (MDD) for clarity and understandability, The results showed that the lay group rated all 11 of Axis II criteria sets as being significantly more clear than did the mental health professionals. No difference was seen between the two groups on their ratings of the MDD criteria. Furthermore, professional group rated the majority of the PD criteria sets as being less clear than the MDD criteria, whereas the lay people rated 9 of the 11 PD criteria sets as being more clear than the MDD criteria.