A Hierarchical Taxonomy of Psychopathology Can Transform Mental Health Research

• Type of Material: Article
• Authors: Christopher C. Conway, College of William & Mary; Miriam K. Forbes, Macquarie University; Kelsie T. Forbush, University of Kansas; Eiko I. Fried, Universiteit van Amsterdam; Michael N. Hallquist, Pennsylvania State University; Roman Kotov, State University of New York System; Stephanie N. Mullins-Sweatt, Oklahoma State University; Alexander J. Shackman, University of Maryland, College Park; Andrew E. Skodol, University of Arizona; Susan C. South, Purdue University; Matthew Sunderland, National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre; Monika A. Waszczuk, State University of New York System; David H. Zald, Vanderbilt University; Mohammad H. Afzali, University of Montreal; Marina A. Bornovalova, University of South Florida, Tampa; Natacha Carragher, University of New South Wales; Anna R. Docherty, University of Utah; Katherine G. Jonas, State University of New York System; Robert F. Krueger, University of Minnesota Twin Cities; Praveetha Patalay, University of Liverpool; Aaro L. Pincus, Pennsylvania State University; Jennifer L. Tackett, Northwestern University; Ulrich Reininghaus, Universiteit Maastricht; Irwin Waldman, Emory University; Aidan G. C. Wright, University of Pittsburgh; Johannes Zimmermann, Universität Kassel; Bo Bach, Slagelse Psychiatric Hospital; R. Michael Bagby, University of Toronto; Michael Chmielewski, Southern Methodist University; David C. Cicero, University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa; Lee Anna Clark, University of Notre Dame; Tim Dalgleish, MRC Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit; Colin G. DeYoung, University of Minnesota Twin Cities; Christopher J. Hopwood, University of California, Davis; Masha Y. Ivanova, University of Vermont; Robert D. Latzman, Georgia State University; Christopher J. Patrick, Florida State University; Camilo J. Ruggero, University of North Texas; Douglas B. Samuel, Purdue University; David Watson, University of Notre Dame; NR Eaton, Stony Brook University
• Language: English
• Date: 2019-05-01
• Publisher: SAGE Publications
• Publication Version: Author Accepted Manuscript (After Peer Review)
• Copyright Statement: © 2019 by Association for Psychological Science.
• License: Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 4.0 International
• Final Published Version (URL): http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1745691618810696
• Title of Journal or Parent Work: Perspectives on Psychological Science
• Volume: 14
• Issue: 3
• Start Page: 419
• End Page: 436
• Grant/Funding Information: None declared
• Keywords: Humans; Research Design; transdiagnostic; HiTOP; Terminology as Topic; Hierarchical Taxonomy of Psychopathology; mental illness; ICD; RDoC; Heuristics; nosology; DSM; individual differences; Models, Theoretical; Mental Disorders
• Research Categories: Psychology, Clinical; Health Sciences, Mental Health; Psychology, Cognitive; Health Sciences, Pathology

Abstract

For more than a century, research on psychopathology has focused on categorical diagnoses. Although this work has produced major discoveries, growing evidence points to the superiority of a dimensional approach to the science of mental illness. Here we outline one such dimensional system—the Hierarchical Taxonomy of Psychopathology (HiTOP)—that is based on empirical patterns of co-occurrence among psychological symptoms. We highlight key ways in which this framework can advance mental-health research, and we provide some heuristics for using HiTOP to test theories of psychopathology. We then review emerging evidence that supports the value of a hierarchical, dimensional model of mental illness across diverse research areas in psychological science. These new data suggest that the HiTOP system has the potential to accelerate and improve research on mental-health problems as well as efforts to more effectively assess, prevent, and treat mental illness.