The Conceptual Development of DSM-V

[...] we have heterogeneous conditions within single diagnostic groups, a remarkably high rate in specialty mental health settings of "not otherwise specified" (NOS) diagnoses that do not quite fit the existing criteria, as well as high rates of "subsyndromal" mixed anxietymood-somatic disorders in primary care settings. The single most important precondition for moving forward to improve the clinical and scientific utility of DSM-V will be the incorporation of simple dimensional measures for assessing syndromes within broad diagnostic categories and supraordinate dimensions that cross current diagnostic boundaries. [...] we have decided that one, if not the major, difference between DSM-IV and DSM-V will be the more prominent use of dimensional measures in DSM-V.