Abstract
Diagnosis as a sound understanding of a clinical situation to serve as informational base for clinical care planning is a fundamental activity in medicine. In line with this, the implementation and fulfillment of person-centered psychiatry and medicine require a person-centered diagnosis, one that is not restricted to identifying diseases or differentiating among them, but represents a diagnosis of full health, both ill and positive health. In response to this challenge, a Person-centered Integrative Diagnosis (PDI) model, has been developed under the auspices of the International College of Person Centered Medicine (ICPCM). The distinctive features of the PID model are the diagnosis of a person’s whole health, its multilevel informational structure composed of health status, health contributors, and health experience and values, its encompassing a formulation and also a process engaging clinicians, patient and family, and the use of categories, dimensions and narratives as descriptive tools. Representing an illustration of the PID model, the GLADP-VR, a Latin American Guide of Psychiatric Diagnosis (using ICD categories and codes of illness) has been recently published by the Latin American Psychiatric Association (APAL). Other guides based on the PID model are in the works for psychiatric and general medical practical use. As the context of diagnosis, first the evaluation process is attended to in terms of the conditions and requirements for organizing well the diagnostic interview and obtaining information contributory to a diagnostic formulation. Second, the articulation of the diagnostic effort and formulation with the ensuing clinical care planning are dealt with.