The multiaxial diagnostic model, consisting in the systematic formulation of a patient's condition according to separate clinical variables or aspects, is receiving increasing attention in several parts of the world. This innovative model promises to improve diagnostic reliability and validity and involves many methodological challenges. This paper reviews patterns and issues in the conceptualization of axial content, number and organization of axes, dimensional versus categorical scaling, and evaluation and further development of multiaxial systems.
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This paper was presented at the VI World Congress of Psychiatry, Symposium on Multiaxial Systems of Classification in Psychiatry, Honolulu, Hawaii, August 1977.
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