Symptom-duration thresholds in psychiatric diagnosis

How it is diagnosed

A set of diagnostic criteria is fixed by symptom duration, so the same picture carries a different name at one point on the time axis and at another. The groups on that axis are: 1) psychotic disorders; 2) mood disorders; 3) anxiety disorders; and after them the childhood disorders and the sleep disorders. The axis itself runs 0, 1w, 2w, 3w, 1m, 3m, 6m, 1y, 2y.

Psychotic disorders:

• Brief psychotic: < 1 m
• Schizophreniform: 1 - 6 m
• Schizophrenia: > 6 m
• Delusional: > 1 m
• Schizoaffective: > 2 w

Mood disorders:

• Major depressive: at least 2 w
• Manic sx of bipolar: > 1 w
• Pathologic grief: > 6 m
• Dysthymic: > 2 y
• Cyclothymic: at least 2 y

Anxiety disorders:

• Panic: at least 1 m
• Acute stress: 1 m or less
• Post-traumatic stress: > 1 m
• Phobias: > 6 m
• Adjustment: < 6 m
• Generalized anxiety: > 6 m

Childhood disorders:

• ADHD: > 6 m
• Oppositional defiant: > 6 m
• Tourette syn: > 1 y

Sleep disorders:

• Narcolepsy: > 3 m

The pairs that sit next to each other on the axis are the ones worth keeping in mind: acute stress ends where post-traumatic stress begins, at 1 m, and brief psychotic, schizophreniform and schizophrenia divide the same axis at 1 m and at 6 m.