Approaching Psychopathology from a Psychophysiological Perspective

Abstract

Abstract Traditional diagnostic approaches in psychopathology such as the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM) emphasize a categorical approach that is inadequate to fully conceptualize psychopathology and therefore has limited ability to fully capture diagnosis and inform treatment. Psychophysiological methods, which use a dimensional approach in measurement, provide a stronger foundation for diagnosis and treatment in mental health than do categorical diagnostic methods. Two alternatives to the DSM, the Research Domain Criteria (RDoC) and the Hierarchical Taxonomy of Psychopathology (HiTOP), provide excellent frameworks for conceptualizing psychopathology from a psychophysiological perspective. Moving diagnosis from the traditional categorically based approach, exemplified by the DSM beginning in 1952, to diagnostic schemes that incorporate a dimensional approach emphasizing a holistic view of health and illness has the potential to overcome the inherent limitations of traditional categorical approaches to diagnosis in mental health allowing for more specificity in diagnosis and treatment.