What is a diagnosis?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n This is related to disease, but not necessarily. A syndrome is a set of statistically or otherwise conventionally related symptoms. The concept of <syndrome> lies somewhere between <symptom> and <disease>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Let’s put syndrome and disease together for now and call it ‘diagnostic entity.’<\/p>\n\n\n\n Anyway, in the mental sphere, no disease is fundamentally different from a syndrome.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n This is the case over the whole range of diagnostic entities. Not one of them transcends the situation of symptoms being put together.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Therefore, a diagnosis is a label that one can put on a diagnostic entity, preferably in a one-to-one relationship. Notoriously, DSM-V is a list of all diagnoses that one can use to follow this standard.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Interesting?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Of course, any specific labeling is interesting inasmuch as it is interesting to talk about the diagnostic entity it labels. It’s a means of communication. Over the whole range, DSM-V is also a means of communication, for instance, to be used in scientific research. At least, several researchers can follow the same convention this way and compare research results.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Nothing more, nothing less.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A specific label may be interesting in case people need it to reach a sense of control or being respected. [see: “People in Need of Diagnosis<\/a>“]<\/p>\n\n\n\n Otherwise, it may also be needed for what it is supposed to be in a direct way, namely:<\/p>\n\n\n\n The science of it<\/strong>,<\/p>\n\n\n\n mainly within the chain of causation related to the diagnostic entity: What causes it? What relevant action may it provoke towards relief or prevention?<\/p>\n\n\n\n These questions are related to the present and future. We may not know the answers yet, but we may look for them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In the mental sphere, no diagnostic entity as presently used has known physical causation.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n May we find such in the future? Nobody knows.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This also means that no therapeutic action can presently be based on physical causation. One can only work with (sets of) symptoms, either symbolically or symptomatically. [see: “Symptomatic Therapy?”<\/a>]<\/p>\n\n\n\n In other words, no mental diagnosis can at present lead to an above-symptoms-level therapy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So, does any mental diagnosis make sense?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n At present, in a direct way, it does so only based on conventions and statistical correlations. This makes relevant the following list concerning diagnostic entities:<\/p>\n\n\n\n This way, hard-core conceptual science doesn’t positively answer the sense-making question.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For a proper answer, we need better science.<\/p>\n