1. Milestones in Abnormal Psychology

2. Introduction
The study of abnormal psychology has undergone many changes in diagnosis and methods of study and treatment over the years. Because of advances in technology and changes in society’s standards on normal behavior, criteria for mental illnesses are much more developed.

3. 1952-First edition of DSM published by the American Psychiatric Association.
the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) was the result of the need for a classification of mental disorders. The various existing systems for categorizing mental disorders differed in their principal objectives. DSM-I contained a glossary of descriptions of the diagnostic categories and was the first official manual of mental disorders to focus on clinical utility.

4. 1963- The Community Mental Health Act
On October 31, 1963, President John F. Kennedy signed into law the Community Mental Health Act (also known as the Mental Retardation and Community Mental Health Centers Construction Act of This law helped people with mental illnesses get proper care and get back to their communities as opposed to being kept in hospitals. It triggered deinstitutionalization in the United States.
association/overview/community-mental-health-act/

5. 1965- Norepinephrine theory of depression proposed
the norepinephrine theory of depression came from Dr. Schildkraut in 1965, who came up the with theory based on the pharmacotherapies current at the time.  The original antidepressants, tricyclic antidepressants, inhibited the reuptake of both serotonin and norepinephrine. He hypothesized that norepinephrine was the cause of antidepressant effectiveness.
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6. 1973-CT scan introduced In the us
A CT scan uses a series of xrays to create pictures of virtual slices of body tissue. Those can be used so doctors know the precise position of diseased or otherwise abnormal tissue. The first CT scan in the United States was performed by the Mayo Clinic.

7. 1973-DSM stops listing homosexuality as a mental disorder.
As a result of protests and political uproar by gay activists, in 1973 the APA’s nomenclature task force recommended that homosexuality be declared normal. The trustees did not want to go that far, but they did vote to remove homosexuality from the list of mental illnesses. This decision was confirmed by a vote of the APA membership, and homosexuality was no longer listed in the seventh edition of DSM-II, which was issued in the-mental-illness-that-went-away/

8. 1975-Endorphins – natural opioids—discovered in human brain.
Endorphins are polypeptides containing 30 amino acid units. Opioids are considered stress hormones like corticotrophin, cortisol, and catecholamines (adrenaline, noradrenaline), and are manufactured by the body to reduce stress and relieve pain. Usually produced during periods of extreme stress, endorphins naturally block pain signals produced by the nervous system. 
Endorphins Q &A by Nathaniel Altman Copyright 2002 by Nathaniel Altman

9. 1981-MRI first used as diagnostic tool.
An MRI is a medical imaging technique used in radiology to investigate the anatomy and physiology of the body in both health and disease.   MRI has been used as a structural diagnostic tool since it first came on the medical scene in 1981, and is commonly used to find tumors, bulging disks, and other structural abnormalities.

10. 1988-American Psychological Society founded.
The American Psychological Society  is a nonprofit membership organization founded in 1988 to advance scientific psychology and its representation as a science on the national level. It was founded in 1988 by a group of scientifically oriented psychologists interested in advancing scientific psychology and its representation as a science at the national level. 

11. 1994-DSM-IV published.
in 1994, the DSM-IV was published.. Many changes were made to the classification (e.g., disorders were added, deleted, and reorganized), to the diagnostic criteria sets, and to the descriptive text based on a careful consideration of the available research about the various mental disorders. 

12. 2000-DSM-IV-TR is published and changes criteria for pedophilia, exhibitionism, voyeurism, frotteurism, and sexual sadism.
The DSM-IV-TR states that “the clinical significance criteria were revised to clarify that for Pedophilia, Voyeurism, Exhibitionism, and Frotteurism, if the person has acted on these urges, or the urges cause marked distress or interpersonal difficulty, then by definition there is clinical significance.” ( American Psychiatric Association, 2000, PG 840)
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