A Hierarchical Taxonomy of Psychopathology Can Transform Mental Health Research

There is no author summary for this article yet. Authors can add summaries to their articles on ScienceOpen to make them more accessible to a non-specialist audience.

Abstract

For over 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 psychological symptom co-occurrence. 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.

Related collections

Author and article information

Journal

Title: Perspectives on Psychological Science

Abbreviated Title: Perspect Psychol Sci

Publisher: SAGE Publications

ISSN (Print): 1745-6916

ISSN (Electronic): 1745-6924

Publication date Created: March 07 2019

Publication date Created: May 2019

Publication date (Electronic): March 07 2019

Publication date (Print): May 2019

Volume: 14

Issue: 3

Pages: 419-436

Affiliations

[1 ]Department of Psychological Sciences, College of William & Mary

[2 ]Centre for Emotional Health, Department of Psychology, Macquarie University

[3 ]Department of Psychology, University of Kansas

[4 ]Department of Psychology, University of Amsterdam

[5 ]Department of Psychology, Pennsylvania State University

[6 ]Department of Psychiatry, State University of New York

[7 ]Department of Psychology, Oklahoma State University

[8 ]Department of Psychology and Neuroscience and Cognitive Science Program, University of Maryland

[9 ]Department of Psychiatry, University of Arizona

[10 ]Department of Psychological Sciences, Purdue University

[11 ]National Health and Medical Research Council Centre for Research Excellence in Mental Health and Substance Use, National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre, University of New South Wales

[12 ]Department of Psychology, Vanderbilt University

[13 ]Department of Psychiatry, University of Montreal

[14 ]Department of Psychology, University of South Florida

[15 ]Medical Education and Student Office, Faculty of Medicine, University of New South Wales

[16 ]Department of Psychiatry, University of Utah

[17 ]Department of Psychology, University of Minnesota

[18 ]Institute of Psychology, Health and Society, University of Liverpool

[19 ]Department of Psychology, Northwestern University

[20 ]Department of Psychiatry and Psychology, Maastricht University

[21 ]Centre for Epidemiology and Public Health, Health Service and Population Research Department, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience, King’s College London

[22 ]Department of Psychology, Emory University

[23 ]Department of Psychology, University of Pittsburgh

[24 ]Department of Psychology, University of Kassel

[25 ]Psychiatric Research Unit, Slagelse Psychiatric Hospital

[26 ]Departments of Psychology and Psychiatry, University of Toronto

[27 ]Department of Psychology, Southern Methodist University

[28 ]Department of Psychology, University of Hawaii at Manoa

[29 ]Department of Psychology, University of Notre Dame

[30 ]Medical Research Council Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit, Cambridge, United Kingdom

[31 ]Department of Psychology, University of California, Davis

[32 ]Department of Psychiatry, University of Vermont

[33 ]Department of Psychology, Georgia State University

[34 ]Department of Psychology, Florida State University

[35 ]Department of Psychology, University of North Texas

[36 ]Department of Psychology, Stony Brook University

Article

DOI: 10.1177/1745691618810696

PMC ID: 6497550

PubMed ID: 30844330

SO-VID: 862da7b4-8bd4-4da9-b4e8-df673dfc8be2

License:

http://journals.sagepub.com/page/policies/text-and-data-mining-license

History

Data availability:

Comments

Comment on this article

scite_

Cited by 78

See all cited by

- Version 1
- Version 1