DSM-5 Draft Criteria Shift Diagnostic Emphasis : The fifth edition of the diagnostic manual is likely to include many changes for specific disorders.

The DSM-5 Task Force also is considering creating a new category called “Risk Syndromes” aimed at helping clinicians identify people who are higher risk for later developing a serious mental disorder. If the risk syndromes category is included in the final DSM-5, it initially would include two new diagnoses: psychosis risk syndrome (a precursor to psychosis) and minor neurocognitive disorder (a precursor to major neurocognitive disorder or dementia).

The DSM-5 also includes greater recognition for binge-eating disorder. The current proposal would take the disorder out of the appendix, as it is in the current edition, and include it as a specific disorder in the new manual. Since the last edition of the DSM, hundreds of studies have been published on binge-eating disorder, and it's now clear that compared with other individuals with weight problems, those with binge-eating disorder are more distressed and have a lower quality of life, said Dr. B. Timothy Walsh, chair of the Eating Disorders Work Group and a professor of pediatric psychopharmacology at the New York State Psychiatric Institute.

There are also two new suicide scales in the proposed DSM-5, one for adults and one for adolescents.

These scales are designed to be used when evaluating anyone for a mental disorder, regardless of whether thoughts of suicide are one of the symptoms of their condition.