APA Dictionary of Psychology

in DSM–IV–TR, denoting a broad-based diagnostic category chosen when the patient’s problems seem to fall into a particular family of disorders (e.g., depressive disorders, anxiety disorders) but do not precisely meet the criteria established for specific diagnoses within that family. DSM–5 and DSM-5-TR replaced this designation with two alternatives—either other specified disorder or unspecified disorder—for clinicians to use when describing a patient whose presenting symptoms do not meet formal criteria for a specific diagnosis; for example, a clinician may describe an individual as having an “unspecified depressive disorder.”