The need for a behavioural science focus in research on mental health and mental disorders

Abstract

Psychology as a science offers an enormous diversity of theories, principles, and methodological approaches to understand mental health, abnormal functions and behaviours and mental disorders. A selected overview of the scope, current topics as well as strength and gaps in Psychological Science may help to depict the advances needed to inform future research agendas specifically on mental health and mental disorders. From an integrative psychological perspective, most maladaptive health behaviours and mental disorders can be conceptualized as the result of developmental dysfunctions of psychological functions and processes as well as neurobiological and genetic processes that interact with the environment. The paper presents and discusses an integrative translational model, linking basic and experimental research with clinical research as well as population-based prospective-longitudinal studies. This model provides a conceptual framework to identify how individual vulnerabilities interact with environment over time, and promote critical behaviours that might act as proximal risk factors for ill-health and mental disorders. Within the models framework, such improved knowledge is also expected to better delineate targeted preventive and therapeutic interventions that prevent further escalation in early stages before the full disorder and further complications thereof develop. In contrast to conventional "personalized medicine" that typically targets individual (genetic) variation of patients who already have developed a disease to improve medical treatment, the proposed framework model, linked to a concerted funding programme of the "Science of Behaviour Change", carries the promise of improved diagnosis, treatment and prevention of health-risk behaviour constellations as well as mental disorders.

Relationships between maladaptive cognitive emotion regulation strategies and psychopathology in adolescents from Bangladesh

“…They show that in a country like Bangladesh -just like in other countries-, targets for prevention and intervention of psychopathology could be found in changing maladaptive cognitive strategies like rumination, catastrophizing, and self-blame into more adaptive strategies like positive reappraisal. Focusing such interventions on adolescents at an early age may reduce the risks of developing psychopathology during adulthood [22], which is important, given the present limitations of mental health services in Bangladesh.…”

Psychotherapy and Mental Health as a Psychological Science Discipline

“…Both fields, psychology and the biomedical disciplines, study the same or related phenomena with increasingly similar and complementary approaches and methods. Thus, it is not surprising that appraisals of strengths and weaknesses in both fields often arrive at the same conclusions [Schumann et al, 2014;Wittchen, 2014;Wittchen et al, 2014a]. Despite this continued trend of growing convergence and synergy, it seems to be timely not only to emphasize the unique contributions of the psychological sciences with regard to their traditions, theories, principles, and methods, but also to critically appraise their unique value, potential and impact on improving future research within the next few decades, for example with regard to a better understanding of the determinants and core mechanisms of mental health and mental disorders and the experimental and clinical derivations of improved interventions.…”

“…We recently -together with many colleagues -elaborated tentatively matching research strategies for such an agenda using 4 specific examples of syndromes and disorders, namely 'stress, fear, avoidance and anxiety disorders', 'addictive behaviours', 'impulse control disorders', and 'eating and metabolic disorder' [Wittchen et al, 2014a]. Some of the core goals and core challenges involved in such a programmatic process are depicted in table 1.…”

“…Because dysfunctional behaviour (also denoted in the literature as abnormal or clinically relevant behaviour or syndromes of mental disorders) has large and pervasive effects on health and ill health development and outcomes, there is a broad consensus in the scientific community that there is still vital to improve research with the goal to provide a better understanding of -the mechanisms underlying adaptive and dysfunctional behaviour, -the developmental pathways and trajectories leading to dysfunctional and clinically significant behaviours as well as the determinants for these trajectories, -the identification, by whatever means these determinants can be targeted and systematically influenced, and -the mechanisms of behaviour change with regard to the promotion of normal, adaptive health as well as the reduction or prevention of dysfunctional and clinically significant behaviours as in mental disorders. To reach these goals the ROAMER expert group [Schumann et al, 2014;Wittchen et al, 2014a] concluded that the currently fragmented research field needs to be bundled under a broader comprehensive umbrella of a 'Science of Behaviour' programme in psychology and mental health research in general. For substantial progress to be made, the group suggested 3 essential steps: First, the adoption of an integrative conceptual framework; second, research to identify the most promising targets and procedures; and third, the improved translation of new findings and methods into a psychotherapy translational research agenda.…”

Tratamientos psicológicos para la depresión aplicados a través de Internet y con el apoyo de un clínico: Una actualización

“…In this paper we will focus on mood disorders and depressive symptoms given that this is a costly and highly prevalent problem across the world (Wittchen et al, 2014). There are several reviews on the treatment of major depression using the Internet Richards & Richardson, 2012), and also reviews including other conditions (Arnberg, Linton, Hultcrantz, Heintz, & Jonsson, 2014), and for this reason we focus this paper on recent literature on the treatment of depression and depressive symptoms as a way to highlight the progress in a rapidly expanding fi eld.…”