Introduction to the Special Section: Applications/Implications of the National Institute of Mental Health Research Domain Criteria for Conceptualizing, Assessing, and Treating Mental Disorders in Youth

This chapter discusses the Research Domain Criteria (RDoC) project, an initiative of the National Institutes of Mental Health (NIMH) of the United States to develop for research purposes new ways of classifying mental disorders based on dimensions of observable behavior and neurobiological measures, and explores how the hallmark symptoms of OCD (obsessions, compulsions, and anxiety) can be mapped onto RDoC domains. Unlike current categorical diagnostic systems (e.g., DSM), RDoC seeks to integrate many levels of information (from genomics to self-report) to validate dimensions defined by neurobiology and behavioral measures that cut across current disorder categories. The chapter explores, for heuristic reasons, how the RDoC matrix might be used to elucidate the neurobehavioral domains of dysfunction that lead to the characteristic symptoms of OCD. It then selectively reviews the OCD literature from the perspective of the RDoC domains, aiming to guide future transdiagnostic studies to examine specific neurobehavioral domains across disorders.

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The National Institute of Mental Health Research Domain Criteria

New Oxford Textbook of Psychiatry ◽

10.1093/med/9780198713005.003.0008 ◽

2020 ◽

pp. 62-72

Author(s):

Charles A. Sanislow ◽

Sarah E. Morris ◽

Jennifer Pacheco ◽

Bruce N. Cuthbert

Keyword(s):

Mental Health ◽

Clinical Symptoms ◽

Scientific Progress ◽

The United States ◽

Mental Health Research ◽

Research Domain Criteria ◽

Behavioural Science ◽

Integrative Research ◽

Clinically Significant ◽

Research Domain

The United States National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) Research Domain Criteria (RDoC) initiative offers a framework to facilitate integrative research to clarify core mechanisms of human mental distress and dysfunction. The RDoC was developed to provide an alternative to research, designed around clinical syndromes based on descriptive diagnosis. Rather than beginning with a syndrome and then working ‘down’ to clarify mechanisms, the aim of the RDoC is to guide research that begins with disruptions in neurobiological and behavioural mechanisms, and then works across systems to clarify connections among such disruptions and clinical symptoms. The RDoC also departs from widely accepted categorical diagnoses, instead advocating a dimensional account of clinically significant variance in disrupted mechanisms and symptoms. The need for the RDoC stemmed from the realization that psychopathology research was not keeping pace with advances in clinical neuroscience and behavioural science, and the recognition that the cycle of scientific progress has been hampered by the instantiation of DSM diagnoses as the starting point of psychiatric research design. This chapter details the rationale and development of the RDoC and describes their structure. Some practical considerations and theoretical matters for implementing the RDoC alternative are considered.

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