What Is Dysthymia?
3. Name Change
The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders describes more than at least 12 distinct types of depression. This handbook, published in 1952 by the American Psychiatric Association, catalogs every known mental illness and provides methods and criteria for diagnosing them. It is periodically updated to reflect new knowledge in the field, with the fifth revision being most recent. This current edition is frequently referred to as the DSM-5.
The word dysthymia was first coined in the 1970s as a replacement for the term’s neurotic depression and depressive personality. It was added to edition three (DSM-3) in 1980, where it was referred to as dysthymic disorder. It remained unchanged in the fourth edition, but in 2013, the editors of the newest DSM-5 merged it with chronic major depressive disorder and renamed it persistent depressive disorder.
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