The Feighner Criteria are a set of influential
psychiatric
Psychiatry is the medical specialty devoted to the diagnosis, prevention, and treatment of mental disorders. These include various maladaptations related to mood, behaviour, cognition, and perceptions. See glossary of psychiatry.
Initial psy ...
diagnostic criteria developed at
Washington University in St. Louis between the late 1950s to the early 1970s.
The criteria are named after a psychiatric paper published in 1972 of which John Feighner was the first listed author. It became the most cited article in psychiatry for some time.
The development of the criteria had been led by a trio of psychiatrists working together on the project for a
medical model of psychiatric diagnosis since the late 1950s:
Eli Robins,
Samuel Guze
Samuel Barry Guze (October 18, 1923 – July 19, 2000) was an American psychiatrist, medical educator, and researcher. A graduate of City College of New York and Washington University School of Medicine, he was an influential psychiatrist. H ...
and
George Winokur
George Winokur (February 10, 1925 - October 12, 1996) was an American psychiatrist known for seminal contributions to diagnostic criteria and to the classification and genetics of mood disorder.
Education
He obtained his M.D. degree from the ...
.
Fourteen conditions were defined, including primary affective disorders (such as depression),
schizophrenia
Schizophrenia is a mental disorder characterized by continuous or relapsing episodes of psychosis. Major symptoms include hallucinations (typically hearing voices), delusions, and disorganized thinking. Other symptoms include social w ...
,
anxiety neurosis and
antisocial personality disorder
Antisocial personality disorder (ASPD or infrequently APD) is a personality disorder characterized by a long-term pattern of disregard of, or violation of, the rights of others as well as a difficulty sustaining long-term relationships. Lack ...
.
The criteria were expanded in the publication of the
Research Diagnostic Criteria
The Research Diagnostic Criteria (RDC) are a collection of influential psychiatric diagnostic criteria published in late 1970s under auspices of Statistics Section NY Psychiatric Institute, authors were Spitzer, R L; Endicott J; Robins E. PMID 115 ...
on which many of the criteria of the
American Psychiatric Association
The American Psychiatric Association (APA) is the main professional organization of psychiatrists and trainee psychiatrists in the United States, and the largest psychiatric organization in the world. It has more than 37,000 members are invo ...
's
DSM III
The ''Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders'' (DSM; latest edition: DSM-5-TR, published in March 2022) is a publication by the American Psychiatric Association (APA) for the classification of mental disorders using a common langua ...
(1980) were based, which in turn shaped the
World Health Organization
The World Health Organization (WHO) is a specialized agency of the United Nations responsible for international public health. The WHO Constitution states its main objective as "the attainment by all peoples of the highest possible level o ...
's ICD manual. "The historical record shows that the small group of individuals who created the Feighner criteria instigated a paradigm shift that has had profound effects on the course of American and, ultimately, world psychiatry."
See also
*
Diagnostic classification and rating scales used in psychiatry
Diagnosis is the identification of the nature and cause of a certain phenomenon. Diagnosis is used in many different disciplines, with variations in the use of logic, analytics, and experience, to determine "cause and effect". In systems enginee ...
*
Classification of mental disorders
References
{{Reflist
External links
Commentary on the criteria by John Feighner (written in 1989)
Classification of mental disorders
Psychiatric research