Specifiers are extensions to a

diagnosis Diagnosis (: diagnoses) is the identification of the nature and cause of a certain phenomenon. Diagnosis is used in a lot of different academic discipline, disciplines, with variations in the use of logic, analytics, and experience, to determine " ...

to further clarify a disorder or illness. They allow for a more specific diagnosis. They are used extensively in the Diagnostic & Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5) primarily in the diagnosis of

mood disorders A mood disorder, also known as an affective disorder, is any of a group of conditions of mental and behavioral disorder where the main underlying characteristic is a disturbance in the person's mood. The classification is in the ''Diagnostic ...

. Specifiers are not

mutually exclusive In logic and probability theory, two events (or propositions) are mutually exclusive or disjoint if they cannot both occur at the same time. A clear example is the set of outcomes of a single coin toss, which can result in either heads or tails ...

and more than one specifier may be applied on a patient.

Types of specifier

In bipolar disorder, specifiers describe the nature of a current episode, such as the levels of anxiety, melancholia, and psychosis, and whether moods are congruent with behavior or incongruent. They also describe the ongoing nature of recurrent episodes, when they began, how often they occur, and the pattern of re-occurrence. A

postpartum The postpartum (or postnatal) period begins after childbirth and is typically considered to last for six to eight weeks. There are three distinct phases of the postnatal period; the acute phase, lasting for six to twelve hours after birth; the ...

onset specifier can be applied in major depressive disorder or bipolar disorder if the onset is within four weeks after childbirth.

References

Bibliography

* * Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders Classification of mental disorders {{psychology stub