To test the hypothesis that nosologies are biased towards recognizing highly distinctive syndromes and therefore conflate those that are less distinctive, eight subjects judged the distinctiveness of 33 DSM-IV disorders and 20 rheumatic disorders. As predicted, judged distinctiveness was negatively correlated with prevalence for both sets of disorders.
References
1.
American Psychiatric Association. (1994) Diagnostic and Statistical manual of mental disorders. (4th ed.) Washington, DC: American Psychiatric Press.
