DC:0–5™ Diagnostic Classification of Mental Health and Developmental Disorders of Infancy and Early Childhood: Promotion in Russia

Abstract

The purpose of the report is to inform the community of Russian pediatric mental health professionals about the international DC:05 Diagnostic Classification of Mental Health and Developmental Disorders of Infancy and Early Childhood: its purpose, target age, structure and content of diagnostic axes, as well as about the steps already taken domestically to promote the Classification in Russia. We show that the diagnostic Classification is the brainchild of leading foreign experts in the mental health of children and that it is based on an analysis and extrapolation of a large body of clinical data from around the world and covers a wide range of mental disorders experienced by children during their first five years of life. The interdisciplinary focus of DC:05 is emphasized, as well as the presence in it of a crosswalk to the DSM-5 and ICD-10 systems, and the possibility to supplement these classifications taking into account the age specificity of disorders. It was made note that this diagnostic classification is almost unknown among Russian specialists. The report briefly touches on the results of the research activities of the interdisciplinary research group of the Scientific Center for Mental Health (Moscow) carried out in the period between 2002 and 2017 and aimed at analyzing the diagnostic approaches proposed in the Classification and testing them on Russian sample populations. The release of the Russian version of DC:05 in 2022 by the non-profit organization Caritas Social School (St. Petersburg), with the official consent of the DC:05 developer and in cooperation with the Faculty of Psychology of St. Petersburg State University, and an accompanying DC:05 introduction course developed by this team for Russian child mental health professionals were announced.