Revisiting the seven pillars of RDoC

Abstract

Background In 2013, a few years after the launch of the National Institute of Mental Health’s Research Domain Criteria (RDoC) initiative, Cuthbert and Insel published a paper titled “Toward the future of psychiatric diagnosis: the seven pillars of RDoC.” The RDoC project is a translational research effort to encourage new ways of studying psychopathology through a focus on disruptions in normal functions (such as reward learning or attention) that are defined jointly by observable behavior and neurobiological measures. The paper outlined the principles of the RDoC research framework, including emphases on research that acquires data from multiple measurement classes to foster integrative analyses, adopts dimensional approaches, and employs novel methods for ascertaining participants and identifying valid subgroups. Discussion To mark the first decade of the RDoC initiative, we revisit the seven pillars and highlight new research findings and updates to the framework that are related to each. This reappraisal emphasizes the flexible nature of the RDoC framework and its application in diverse areas of research, new findings related to the importance of developmental trajectories within and across neurobehavioral domains, and the value of computational approaches for clarifying complex multivariate relations among behavioral and neurobiological systems. Conclusion The seven pillars of RDoC have provided a foundation that has helped to guide a surge of new studies that have examined neurobehavioral domains related to mental disorders, in the service of informing future psychiatric nosology. Building on this footing, future areas of emphasis for the RDoC project will include studying central-peripheral interactions, developing novel approaches to phenotyping for genomic studies, and identifying new targets for clinical trial research to facilitate progress in precision psychiatry.

Metabolomics signatures of depression: the role of symptom profiles

“…Nevertheless, the pattern of metabolite-symptom associations was substantially consistent in analyses focusing on a clinically selected and homogenous subsample of currently depressed cases compared to healthy controls. This consistency may support the hypothesis of a transdiagnostic process present in different degrees across different developmental psychopathological stages and various disorders [ 45 ]. Strengths of the current study are the large sample size and the detailed clinical assessment of depression and related characteristics.…”

“…atypical/energy-related symptoms) features clustering around the IMD axis are indeed partially shared with other transdiagnostic constructs such as sickness behavior or anhedonia [ 42 – 44 ], or with other psychiatric (e.g bipolar disorder, seasonal affective disorder) or somatic (e.g obesity) conditions. Aligning with the NIMH Research Domain Criteria (RDoC) framework [ 45 ], IMD may be conceptualized as a dimension in the heterogeneity space of depression mapping the degree of expression of behavioral and biological process overlapping with those in cardiometabolic phenotypes. Once better characterized this dimension may be empirically translated in tools identifying, for instance, depressed subjects at higher cardiometabolic risk.…”

Psychomotor Slowing in Psychosis and Inhibitory Repetitive Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation

“…This study suggests great potential of noninvasive brain stimulation interventions in the motor system . Multiple other target regions and symptoms could be tested in this regard, including transdiagnostic studies …”

Early executive functioning predicts externalizing problems in neurodiverse preschoolers

“…As difficulties in executive functioning, EP, and social functioning are not unique to autism, we included children with other neurodevelopmental conditions who experience these issues as well. With this transdiagnostic approach, we may better understand children with heterogeneous and overlapping symptoms, skills, and difficulties (Astle et al, 2022;Morris et al, 2022). Our approach is thus aligned with the NIMH Research Domain Criteria (RDoC) initiative encouraging examination of dimensional measures across diagnostic categories (Cuthbert, 2022).…”