Sometimes disorders show diagnostic inflation and sometimes deflation, and neither is more common than the other. Overall, diagnosis have not consistently inflated from DSM-III to DSM-V. 

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Of 123 comparisons of the diagnostic rates of a disorder from one condition to the next, 26.8% were significantly different, and 76.4% had a 10% change in diagnostic rate. Thus, DSM revisions have had substantial effects on rates of diagnosis. 

Data on diagnostic inflation

Fabiano, F., & Haslam, N. (2020). Diagnostic inflation in the DSM: A meta-analysis of changes in the stringency of psychiatric diagnosis from DSM-III to DSM-5. Clinical Psychology Review, 80, 101889. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cpr.2020.101889

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