Toward a Descriptive Problem-Based Taxonomy for Mental Health: A Nonmedicalized Way Out of the Biomedical Model

Abstract

Psychiatric diagnoses found in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) and International Classification of Diseases (ICD) are pervasive in the field of mental health to help individuals access services such as psychotherapy. In the United States, they are used for insurance reimbursement purposes and by providers in client–clinician encounters. Psychiatric disorders tend to be subsumed under the biomedical model of mental health and have been critiqued for contributing to iatrogenic harm and stigma in addition to fundamental concerns about their validity and reliability. However, current practice of requiring psychiatric diagnoses within health care systems occurs due to federal regulations and does not allow for the formal use of alternative taxonomies, forcing clinicians and clients into the biomedical model. This article will explicate key stakeholders involved and technicalities dictating the use of psychiatric diagnoses. It will introduce an organizing framework, borrowing from the field of social work accompanied by an example of how the field can move away from the biomedical model given the regulations at play. This article proposes the interdisciplinary development of an alternative nonmedicalized, psychosocial, and codified descriptive problem-based taxonomy that can decouple psychiatric diagnosis from the eligibility for and provision of mental health services.