Stabilizing Constructs through Collaboration across Different Research Fields as a Way to Foster the Integrative Approach of the Research Domain Criteria (RDoC) Project

In this article, I explain why stabilizing constructs is important to the success of the Research Domain Criteria Project and identify one measure for facilitating such stability

Patient M: Considerations for use of atypical antipsychotics in borderline personality disorder

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NIMH Research Domain Criteria (RDoC)

of Mental Health (NIMH) formed a working group to implement Strategy 1.4 of its Strategic Plan that called for the “development, for research purposes, of new ways of classify-ing psychopathology based on dimensions of observable behaviors and neurobiological measures. ” This project became known as the Research Domain Criteria (RDoC; Insel et al., 2010). RDoC marks a shift in psychi-atric research. For the past 30-plus years, most research on mental disorders has been based on clinical syndromes as defined in the DSM. The structure of RDoC departs from clinically described syndromes and attempts to “carve nature at its joints ” by studying psychopathology based on objective behav-ioral, neurobiological, and genetic measures while remaining agnostic concerning tradi-tional diagnoses based on clinical description (Sanislow et al., 2010). History and Rationale Efforts to codify psychiatric diagnosis for research purposes began in the 1970s with the advent of the Feighner criteria, later the Research Diagnostic Criteria, which served as the foundation for the 1980 DSM-III (Feighner et al., 1972). These developments marked a Authors ’ note: The authors thank Lisa Alberts and Bruce Cuthbert for helpful comments on an earlier draft of this entry

The case for retaining borderline personality disorder as a psychiatric diagnosis

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Alcohol Binge Drinking:Negative and Positive Valence System Abnormalities

This work was supported by an award from Dundee University Medical School (ref. AT27) to ST and JDS. Spectroscopy was supported by an unrestricted ‘Work in Progress’ agreement with Siemens.Background: Three million deaths occur each year due to alcohol misuse. Translational studies are crucial to translate preclinical findings to patients. Preclinical studies have highlighted abnormalities in specific brain systems with these forming the basis of allostasis theory. However, few studies have tested predictions in humans using neuroimaging. Methods: Here we used a Research Domain Criteria (RDoC) approach to testallostasis theory predictions of blunted positive valence system (PVS) and abnormally increased negative valence system (NVS) responses in fifty-seven binge alcohol drinking subjects and healthy controls who completed an instrumental task during fMRI. Results: As hypothesised, binge alcohol drinkers showed abnormally increased activity in NVS-linked regions such as the hippocampus and dorsal cingulate, and abnormally blunted activity in PVS-linked regions such as the striatum, compared to controls. Higher measures of problematic alcohol use were associated with more abnormal brain activity, only for binge drinkers who had been most recently drinking. Conclusions: These results support allostasis theory predictions of abnormally increased NVS and blunted PVS responses in binge alcohol drinkers. Further similar translational neuroimaging studies are indicated, particularly focusing on the NVSPostprintPeer reviewe