scholarly journals Misunderstanding RDoC

2017 ◽  
Vol 225 (3) ◽  
pp. 170-174 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jessica I. Lake ◽  
Cindy M. Yee ◽  
Gregory A. Miller
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Mental Illness ◽  
Biological Science ◽  
Research Domain Criteria ◽  
Biological Phenomena ◽  
The Us ◽  
Key Features ◽  
Research Domain

Abstract. Mental illness is fundamentally mental, by definition about psychological rather than biological phenomena, but biological phenomena play key roles in understanding, preventing, and treating mental illness. The Research Domain Criteria (RDoC) initiative of the US National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) is an unusually ambitious effort to foster integration of psychological and biological science in the service of psychopathology research. Some key features and common misunderstandings of RDoC are discussed here.

scholarly journals The role of RDoC in future classification of mental disorders

2020 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
pp. 81-85 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Affective Behavior ◽  
Research Domain Criteria ◽  
Computational Approaches ◽  
Diagnostic Categories ◽  
Key Features ◽  
Study Designs ◽  
Research Domain

The Research Domain Criteria (RDoC) project constitutes a translational framework for psychopathology research, initiated by the National Institute of Mental Health in an attempt to provide new avenues for research to circumvent problems emerging from the use of symptom-based diagnostic categories in diagnosing disorders. The RDoC alternative is a focus on psychopathology based on dimensions simultaneously defined by observable behavior (including quantitative measures of cognitive or affective behavior) and neurobiological measures. Key features of the RDoC framework include an emphasis on functional dimensions that range from normal to abnormal, integration of multiple measures in study designs (which can foster computational approaches), and high priority on studies of neurodevelopment and environmental influences (and their interaction) that can contribute to advances in understanding the etiology of disorders throughout the lifespan. The paper highlights key implications for ways in which RDoC can contribute to future ideas about classification, as well as some of the considerations involved in translating basic behavioral and neuroscience data to psychopathology.

Diagnosis and conceptualization of mental illness

2020 ◽  
pp. 3-26
Author(s):  
Awais Aftab ◽  
John G. Csernansky
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Mental Illness ◽  
Mental Disorders ◽  
Conceptual Development ◽  
Dementia Praecox ◽  
Manic Depressive ◽  
Harmful Dysfunction ◽  
The Us ◽  
Philosophical Account ◽  
Research Domain

This chapter outlines the evolution of psychiatric understanding of mental disorders utilizing seven landmark texts that have informed current nosology. Important themes reviewed in this chapter include the foundational distinction between dementia praecox and manic-depressive insanity (Emil Kraepelin), drastic diagnostic differences between American and British psychiatrists reported in the 1970s (the US–UK diagnostic project), development of operationalized diagnostic criteria (Feighner criteria), the biopsychosocial model (George Engel), the philosophical account of mental disorder as harmful dysfunction (Jerome Wakefield), the endophenotype concept (Irving Gottesman and Todd Gould), and the Research Domain Criteria (RDoC) by the National Institute of Mental Health. Historical and theoretical links between these different texts and thinkers are highlighted and are offered to the reader in an integrated narrative of psychiatry’s conceptual development.

Cells, Circuits, and Syndromes: A Critical Commentary on the NIMH Research Domain Criteria Project

2012 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
pp. 229-236 ◽  
Author(s):  
Niall McLaren
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Mental Disorders ◽  
Research Program ◽  
Research Domain Criteria ◽  
Statistical Manual ◽  
Diagnostic And Statistical Manual ◽  
Critical Commentary ◽  
The Us ◽  
New Research ◽  
Research Domain

The US National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) has recently declared a new research program for psychiatry, the Research Domain Criteria (RDoC), as the successor of the long-standing Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) diagnostic program. However, the new program is based on a series of assumptions that, on analysis, lack any formal scientific standing. Essentially, as presently conceptualized, the RDoC program is no more than ideology masquerading as science, and thus cannot achieve its stated goals. It is argued that the program will lead psychiatry into intellectually sterile areas because it is in fact the wrong research program for the present state of our knowledge.

The Psychophysiology of Anxiety and Mood Disorders

2017 ◽  
Vol 225 (3) ◽  
pp. 175-188 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter J. Lang ◽  
Lisa M. McTeague ◽  
Margaret M. Bradley
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Heart Rate ◽  
Brain Function ◽  
Physiological Reactivity ◽  
Research Domain Criteria ◽  
Diagnostic Systems ◽  
Psychophysiological Reactivity ◽  
Diagnostic Categories ◽  
New Research ◽  
Research Domain

Abstract. Several decades of research are reviewed, assessing patterns of psychophysiological reactivity in anxiety patients responding to a fear/threat imagery challenge. Findings show substantive differences in these measures within principal diagnostic categories, questioning the reliability and categorical specificity of current diagnostic systems. Following a new research framework (US National Institute of Mental Health [NIMH], Research Domain Criteria [RDoC]; Cuthbert & Insel, 2013 ), dimensional patterns of physiological reactivity are explored in a large sample of anxiety and mood disorder patients. Patients’ responses (e.g., startle reflex, heart rate) during fear/threat imagery varied significantly with higher questionnaire measured “negative affect,” stress history, and overall life dysfunction – bio-marking disorder groups, independent of Diagnostic and Statistical Manuals (DSM). The review concludes with a description of new research, currently underway, exploring brain function indices (structure activation, circuit connectivity) as potential biological classifiers (collectively with the reflex physiology) of anxiety and mood pathology.

Vergleich von kategorialer und dimensionaler Analyse bei Angststörungen

2020 ◽  
Vol 88 (05) ◽  
pp. 291-292
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Research Domain Criteria ◽  
Dsm Iv ◽  
Dimensionale Analyse ◽  
Research Domain

Zur Diagnose von Patienten mit Angststörungen existieren zwei unterschiedliche analytische Ansätze: ein kategorialer, der auf dem DSM-IV beruht und eine dimensionale Analyse, die auf den Research Domain Criteria (einer Initiative des National Institute of Mental Health) basiert. Es ist bisher nicht bekannt, ob die beiden Ansätze unterschiedliche oder ähnliche Informationen bezüglich der Diagnose von Personen mit Angststörungen liefern.

Research Domain Criteria and OCD

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eyal Kalanthroff ◽  
Gideon E. Anholt ◽  
Helen Blair Simpson
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
United States ◽  
Mental Disorders ◽  
The United States ◽  
Self Report ◽  
Research Domain Criteria ◽  
Diagnostic Systems ◽  
Behavioral Measures ◽  
Research Domain

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.

The National Institute of Mental Health Research Domain Criteria

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.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document