A dimensional system classifies clinical presentations based on quantification of attributes rather than the assignment to categories and works best in describing phenomena that are distributed continuously and that do not have clear boundaries. 

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Dilemmas of the categorical model

Research on categorical versus dimensional models

Clinical utility

Categorical or Dimensional

Kraemer, H. C., Noda, A., & O'Hara, R. (2004). Categorical versus dimensional approaches to diagnosis: methodological challenges. Journal of psychiatric research, 38(1), 17-25. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0022-3956(03)00097-9

Categorical versus dimensional approaches to diagnosis: methodological challenges

Clinical utility is the extent to which DSM assists clinical decision makers in fulfilling the various clinical functions of a psychiatric classification.

Clinical utility

Categorical classification divides mental disorders into types based on criterion sets with defining features. Researchers and clinicians following this model would diagnose and conceptualize conditions of disorders as qualitatively distinct from normal functioning and from one another. 

Categorical classification

Dimensional classification

Excessive diagnostic co-occurrence

Boundary disputes

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