A Hierarchical Taxonomy of Psychopathology Can Transform Mental Health Research.
Christopher C ConwayMiriam K ForbesKelsie T ForbushEiko I FriedMichael N HallquistRoman KotovStephanie N Mullins-SweattAlexander J ShackmanAndrew E SkodolSusan C SouthMatthew SunderlandMonika A WaszczukDavid H ZaldMohammad H AfzaliMarina A BornovalovaNatacha CarragherAnna R DochertyKatherine G JonasRobert F KruegerPraveetha PatalayAaron L PincusJennifer L TackettUlrich ReininghausIrwin D WaldmanAidan G C WrightJohannes ZimmermannBo BachR Michael BagbyMichael ChmielewskiDavid C CiceroLee Anna ClarkTim DalgleishColin G DeYoungChristopher J HopwoodMasha Y IvanovaRobert D LatzmanChristopher J PatrickCamilo J RuggeroDouglas B SamuelDavid WatsonNicholas R EatonPublished in: Perspectives on psychological science : a journal of the Association for Psychological Science (2019)
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.