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Molecular Psychiatry Mar 2019For over a century, psychiatric disorders have been defined by expert opinion and clinical observation. The modern DSM has relied on a consensus of experts to define... (Review)
Review
For over a century, psychiatric disorders have been defined by expert opinion and clinical observation. The modern DSM has relied on a consensus of experts to define categorical syndromes based on clusters of symptoms and signs, and, to some extent, external validators, such as longitudinal course and response to treatment. In the absence of an established etiology, psychiatry has struggled to validate these descriptive syndromes, and to define the boundaries between disorders and between normal and pathologic variation. Recent advances in genomic research, coupled with large-scale collaborative efforts like the Psychiatric Genomics Consortium, have identified hundreds of common and rare genetic variations that contribute to a range of neuropsychiatric disorders. At the same time, they have begun to address deeper questions about the structure and classification of mental disorders: To what extent do genetic findings support or challenge our clinical nosology? Are there genetic boundaries between psychiatric and neurologic illness? Do the data support a boundary between disorder and normal variation? Is it possible to envision a nosology based on genetically informed disease mechanisms? This review provides an overview of conceptual issues and genetic findings that bear on the relationships among and boundaries between psychiatric disorders and other conditions. We highlight implications for the evolving classification of psychopathology and the challenges for clinical translation.
Topics: Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders; Genomics; History, 19th Century; History, 20th Century; History, 21st Century; Humans; Mental Disorders; Neurodevelopmental Disorders; Psychiatry; Psychopathology
PubMed: 29317742
DOI: 10.1038/s41380-017-0010-4 -
The International Journal of Eating... Jul 2022There is ongoing discussion about whether sports participation is a risk or protective factor for eating disorders (EDs). Research is mixed, with some studies suggesting... (Meta-Analysis)
Meta-Analysis Review
OBJECTIVE
There is ongoing discussion about whether sports participation is a risk or protective factor for eating disorders (EDs). Research is mixed, with some studies suggesting that athletes have higher mean levels of ED psychopathology compared to nonathletes, while other studies suggest the opposite effect or no differences. The purpose of the current meta-analysis was to identify whether female athletes reported higher mean levels of ED psychopathology compared to nonathletes.
METHOD
Following PRISMA guidelines, we identified 56 studies that reported ED psychopathology for female athletes and nonathletes. A three-level random-effects model of between- and within-study variance was completed for the following outcome variables: overall ED psychopathology, body dissatisfaction, drive for thinness, restricting, and loss-of-control eating.
RESULTS
Athletes reported lower levels of body dissatisfaction compared to nonathletes (g = -.21, p < .0001). Athletes and nonathletes reported similar levels of overall ED psychopathology, drive for thinness, restricting, and loss-of-control eating on average. Sport type significantly moderated standardized mean difference effect sizes of ED psychopathology in athletes versus nonathletes. Effect sizes comparing levels of drive for thinness, restricting, and loss-of-control eating in athletes versus nonathletes were larger for studies with athletes participating in aesthetic/lean sports compared to nonaesthetic/nonlean sports.
DISCUSSION
Findings from this meta-analysis could inform future ED prevention and treatment in female athletes by providing further evidence that athletes in aesthetic/lean sports may report higher levels of ED psychopathology. Participating in nonaesthetic/nonlean sports may be a protective factor for experiencing less body dissatisfaction.
PUBLIC SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT
The current meta-analysis summarized findings from 56 studies that assessed levels of disordered eating, body dissatisfaction, dietary restricting, and loss-of-control eating in female athletes and nonathletes. Athletes reported lower levels of body dissatisfaction compared to nonathletes, highlighting that participation in sport could have some protective factors. Athletes participating in sports that require weight categories (e.g., judo) and sports that emphasize thinness/leanness (e.g., gymnastics and distance running) had higher levels of disordered eating relative to athletes participating in other types of sports that do not emphasize thinness/leanness (e.g., volleyball and basketball).
Topics: Athletes; Feeding and Eating Disorders; Female; Humans; Psychopathology; Sports; Thinness
PubMed: 35665528
DOI: 10.1002/eat.23748 -
Atencion Primaria Dec 2022
Topics: Adolescent; Humans; Mental Health; Psychopathology; Social Networking; Internet; Mental Disorders
PubMed: 36257099
DOI: 10.1016/j.aprim.2022.102487 -
Annual Review of Clinical Psychology May 2023Acculturation and psychopathology are linked in integrated, interactional, intersectional, and dynamic ways that span different types of intercultural contact, levels of... (Review)
Review
Acculturation and psychopathology are linked in integrated, interactional, intersectional, and dynamic ways that span different types of intercultural contact, levels of analysis, timescales, and contexts. A developmental psychopathology approach can be useful to explain why, how, and what about psychological acculturation results in later adaptation or maladaptation for acculturating youth and adults. This review applies a conceptual model of acculturation and developmental psychopathology to a widely used framework of acculturation variables producing an Integrated Process Framework of Acculturation Variables (IP-FAV). This new comprehensive framework depicts major predisposing acculturation conditions (why) as well as acculturation orientations and processes (how) that result in adaptation and maladaptation across the life span (what). The IP-FAV is unique in that it integrates both proximal and remote acculturation variables and explicates key acculturation processes to inform research, practice, and policy.
Topics: Acculturation; Mental Disorders; Psychopathology; United States; Humans; Child
PubMed: 36854286
DOI: 10.1146/annurev-clinpsy-080921-080622 -
The American Journal of Psychiatry Sep 2018In both child and adult psychiatry, empirical evidence has now accrued to suggest that a single dimension is able to measure a person's liability to mental disorder,... (Review)
Review
In both child and adult psychiatry, empirical evidence has now accrued to suggest that a single dimension is able to measure a person's liability to mental disorder, comorbidity among disorders, persistence of disorders over time, and severity of symptoms. This single dimension of general psychopathology has been termed "p," because it conceptually parallels a dimension already familiar to behavioral scientists and clinicians: the "g" factor of general intelligence. As the g dimension reflects low to high mental ability, the p dimension represents low to high psychopathology severity, with thought disorder at the extreme. The dimension of p unites all disorders. It influences present/absent status on hundreds of psychiatric symptoms, which modern nosological systems typically aggregate into dozens of distinct diagnoses, which in turn aggregate into three overarching domains, namely, the externalizing, internalizing, and psychotic experience domains, which finally aggregate into one dimension of psychopathology from low to high: p. Studies show that the higher a person scores on p, the worse that person fares on measures of family history of psychiatric illness, brain function, childhood developmental history, and adult life impairment. A dimension of p may help account for ubiquitous nonspecificity in psychiatry: multiple disorders share the same risk factors and biomarkers and often respond to the same therapies. Here, the authors summarize the history of the unidimensional idea, review modern research into p, demystify statistical models, articulate some implications of p for prevention and clinical practice, and outline a transdiagnostic research agenda. [AJP AT 175: Remembering Our Past As We Envision Our Future October 1910: A Study of Association in Insanity Grace Helen Kent and A.J. Rosanoff: "No sharp distinction can be drawn between mental health and mental disease; a large collection of material shows a gradual and not an abrupt transition from the normal state to pathological states."(Am J Psychiatry 1910; 67(2):317-390 )].
Topics: Humans; Mental Disorders; Models, Psychological; Psychopathology
PubMed: 29621902
DOI: 10.1176/appi.ajp.2018.17121383 -
Comprehensive Psychiatry Nov 2018In the past 35 years, developmental psychopathology has grown into a flourishing discipline that shares a scientific agenda with contemporary psychiatry. In this...
In the past 35 years, developmental psychopathology has grown into a flourishing discipline that shares a scientific agenda with contemporary psychiatry. In this editorial, which introduces the special issue, we describe the history of developmental psychopathology, including core principles that bridge allied disciplines. These include (1) emphasis on interdisciplinary research, (2) elucidation of multicausal pathways to seemingly single disorders (phenocopies), (3) description of divergent multifinal outcomes from common etiological start points (pathoplasticity), and (4) research conducted across multiple levels of analysis spanning genes to environments. Next, we discuss neurodevelopmental models of psychopathology, and provide selected examples. We emphasize differential neuromaturation of subcortical and cortical neural networks and connectivity, and how both acute and protracted environmental insults can compromise neural structure and function. To date, developmental psychopathology has placed greater emphasis than psychiatry on neuromaturational models of mental illness. However, this gap is closing rapidly as advances in technology render etiopathophysiologies of psychopathology more interrogable. We end with suggestions for future interdisciplinary research, including the need to evaluate measurement invariance across development, and to construct more valid assessment methods where indicated.
Topics: Child; Child Development; Forecasting; Humans; Mental Disorders; Psychiatry; Psychopathology
PubMed: 30415196
DOI: 10.1016/j.comppsych.2018.10.014 -
Clinical Psychology Review Dec 2023Coherence in the science and practice of mental health assessment depends upon a tight connection between psychopathology concepts that are used and the way those... (Review)
Review
Coherence in the science and practice of mental health assessment depends upon a tight connection between psychopathology concepts that are used and the way those concepts are operationalized and defined. In contrast, the use of the same word to mean more than one thing contributes to incoherence, inefficiency, and confusion. In this paper, we review three possible meanings of the word "dimension" as it relates to the assessment of psychopathology and describe how the indiscriminate use of this word has caused confusion in the general context of the transition to a more evidence-based approach to mental health diagnosis. We attempt to disambiguate the term "dimension" by demarcating three concepts that can be distinguished based on different empirical standards: continuous variables, unidimensional dimensions, and distinct dimensions.
Topics: Humans; Psychopathology; Mental Disorders
PubMed: 37926058
DOI: 10.1016/j.cpr.2023.102356 -
Zeitschrift Fur Kinder- Und... Sep 2022
Topics: Humans; Mental Disorders; Psychopathology
PubMed: 36083264
DOI: 10.1024/1422-4917/a000893 -
Psychopathology 2014
Topics: Humans; Neurosciences; Psychopathology
PubMed: 25277254
DOI: 10.1159/000366493 -
Behaviour Research and Therapy Jul 2022The COVID-19 pandemic has introduced widespread societal changes that have required ongoing adaptation. Unsurprisingly, stress-related psychopathology has increased... (Review)
Review
The COVID-19 pandemic has introduced widespread societal changes that have required ongoing adaptation. Unsurprisingly, stress-related psychopathology has increased during the pandemic, in both children and adults. We review these patterns through the lens of several leading conceptual models of the link between stress and psychopathology. Some of these models focus on characteristics of environmental stressors-including cumulative risk, specific stressor types, and stress sensitization approaches. Understanding the specific aspects of environmental stressors that are most likely to lead to psychopathology can shed light on who may be in most need of clinical intervention. Other models center on factors that can buffer against the onset of psychopathology following stress and the mechanisms through which stressors contribute to emergent psychopathology. These models highlight specific psychosocial processes that may be most usefully targeted by interventions to reduce stress-related psychopathology. We review evidence for each of these stress models in the context of other widescale community-level disruptions, like natural disasters and terrorist attacks, alongside emerging evidence for these stress pathways from the COVID-19 pandemic. We discuss clinical implications for developing interventions to reduce stress-related psychopathology during the pandemic, with a focus on brief, digital interventions that may be more accessible than traditional clinical services.
Topics: Adult; COVID-19; Child; Humans; Longitudinal Studies; Mental Disorders; Pandemics; Psychopathology
PubMed: 35642991
DOI: 10.1016/j.brat.2022.104121