Mental health in Ethiopia EPHA Expert Group report

Abstract

Introduction
The American Psychiatric Association' s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, fourth edition (DSM-IV) conceptualizes the term 'Mental Disorder' as " a clinically significant behavioral or psychological syndrome or pattern that occurs in a person that is associated with present distress (painful symptom) or disability (impairment in one or more important areas of functioning) or with a significantly increased risk of suffering death, pain, disability'or an important loss of freedom. ..this syndrome or pattern must not be an expectable response to a particular event" (1). The l0th edition of the International Classification of Diseases (ICD- 10), similarly uses the term to imply "the existence of a clinically recognizable set of symptoms or behaviour associated in most cases with distress and with interference with personal functions..." (2).