A Network Perspective on the Search for Common Transdiagnostic Brain Mechanisms

The way we conceptualize and categorize psychiatric symptoms and mental disorders has evolved significantly over time —beginning with mental disorders being classified into distinct diagnostic entities purely based on phenomenological criteria, toward a multidimensional description of mental disorders along symptom clusters across diagnostic boundaries that are potentially closer aligned to underlying biological (patho)mechanisms (1). Despite its attractions from a biological/precision medicine point of view, the utility of a transdiagnostic, multidimensional description of mental disorders is challenged by longitudinal studies suggesting that a common single factor underlies the vulnerability to a broad sp ectrum of psychiatric illnesses ranging from depression to psychosis (2).
Source: Biological Psychiatry - Category: Psychiatry Authors: Tags: Early Career Investigator Commentary Source Type: research