Initially termed as “simple phobia” in DSM-III and DSM-III-TR, the name was later changed to “specific phobia,” beginning with the DSM-IV version, and at that time, five types of specific phobia were included: blood/injection/injury (B-I-I), animal, natural environment, situational, and other.Īn animal type phobia is cued by animals (zoophobia, and for wild animal agrizoophobia) or insects (such as spiders – arachnophobia, snakes – ophidiophobia, rats, and mice - musophobia), while a natural environment type phobia is cued by an object in the natural environment, such as heights (acrophobia), storms, lightning, thunder (brontophobia, keraunophobia, or tonitrophobia, or astraphobia), water (acquaphobia), or the dark (nyctophobia). In the present article, we make a proposal for modifying the section devoted to phobias and potentially including new clinically relevant pathologies.Īccording to the DSM, a specific phobia is an anxiety disorder that represents unreasonable and irrational fear prompted by a specific stimulus (an object or a situation).
A feature of the DSM is thus its historicity and its willingness to stay abreast of the latest developments and hypotheses of the changing times.
#Pathological fear of storms manual#
The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM, currently in its fourth version, DSM-IV-TR) 1 represents the standard reference manual for the assessment, diagnosis, and treatment of neuropsychiatric diseases, and since its first version has paralleled the increasing knowledge about brain and psychopathologies as well as the introduction of new diagnostic criteria, adapting its assessment tools accordingly.
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