In 1949, the World Health Organization published the sixth revision of the International Statistical Classification of Diseases (ICD), which included a section on mental disorders for the first time. The foreword to DSM - 1 states this "categorized mental disorders in rubrics similar to those of the Armed Forces nomenclature. '' An APA Committee on Nomenclature and Statistics was empowered to develop a version specifically for use in the United States, to standardize the diverse and confused usage of different documents. In 1950, the APA committee undertook a review and consultation. It circulated an adaptation of Medical 203, the VA system, and the Standard 's Nomenclature to approximately 10 % of APA members. 46 % replied, of which 93 % approved, and after some further revisions (resulting in its being called DSM - I), the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders was approved in 1951 and published in 1952. The structure and conceptual framework were the same as in Medical 203, and many passages of text were identical. The manual was 130 pages long and listed 106 mental disorders. These included several categories of "personality disturbance '', generally distinguished from "neurosis '' (nervousness, egodystonic).
he diagnostic and statistical manual for diagnosing psychiatric disorders was first published in
1952