The Hierarchical Taxonomy of Psychopathology (HiTOP) is a quantitative nosological system that addresses shortcomings of traditional mental disorder diagnoses, including arbitrary boundaries between ...psychopathology and normality, frequent disorder co‐occurrence, substantial heterogeneity within disorders, and diagnostic unreliability over time and across clinicians. This paper reviews evidence on the validity and utility of the internalizing and somatoform spectra of HiTOP, which together provide support for an emotional dysfunction superspectrum. These spectra are composed of homogeneous symptom and maladaptive trait dimensions currently subsumed within multiple diagnostic classes, including depressive, anxiety, trauma‐related, eating, bipolar, and somatic symptom disorders, as well as sexual dysfunction and aspects of personality disorders. Dimensions falling within the emotional dysfunction superspectrum are broadly linked to individual differences in negative affect/neuroticism. Extensive evidence establishes that dimensions falling within the superspectrum share genetic diatheses, environmental risk factors, cognitive and affective difficulties, neural substrates and biomarkers, childhood temperamental antecedents, and treatment response. The structure of these validators mirrors the quantitative structure of the superspectrum, with some correlates more specific to internalizing or somatoform conditions, and others common to both, thereby underlining the hierarchical structure of the domain. Compared to traditional diagnoses, the internalizing and somatoform spectra demonstrated substantially improved utility: greater reliability, larger explanatory and predictive power, and greater clinical applicability. Validated measures are currently available to implement the HiTOP system in practice, which can make diagnostic classification more useful, both in research and in the clinic.
The DSM-5 classifies mood and anxiety disorders as separate conditions. However, some studies in adults find a unidimensional internalizing factor that underpins anxiety and depression, while others ...support a bidimensional model where symptoms segregate into distress (depression and generalized anxiety) and fear factors (phobia subscales). However, little is known about the phenotypic and genetic structure of internalizing psychopathology in children and adolescents.
To investigate the phenotypic associations between depression and anxiety disorder symptom subscales and to test the genetic structures underlying these symptoms (DSM-5-related, unidimensional and bidimensional) across 3 developmental stages: childhood, adolescence, and early adulthood.
Two population-based prospective longitudinal twin/sibling studies conducted in the United Kingdom. The child sample included 578 twins (mean age, approximately 8 and 10 years at waves 1 and 2, respectively). The adolescent and early adulthood sample included 2619 twins/siblings at 3 waves (mean age, 15, 17, and 20 years at each wave).
Self-report symptoms of depression and anxiety disorders.
Phenotypically, when controlling for other anxiety subscales, depression symptoms were only associated with generalized anxiety disorder symptoms in childhood (r = 0.20-0.21); this association broadened to panic and social phobia symptoms in adolescence (r = 0.17-0.24 and r = 0.14-0.16, respectively) and all anxiety subscales in young adulthood (r = 0.06-0.19). The genetic associations were in line with phenotypic results. In childhood, anxiety subscales were influenced by a single genetic factor that did not contribute to genetic variance in depression symptoms, suggesting largely independent genetic influences on anxiety and depression. In adolescence, genetic influences were significantly shared between depression and all anxiety subscales in agreement with DSM-5 conceptualization. In young adulthood, a genetic internalizing factor influencing depression and all anxiety subscales emerged, alongside a small significant genetic fear factor.
These results provide preliminary evidence for different phenotypic and genetic structures of internalizing disorder symptoms in childhood, adolescence, and young adulthood, with depression and anxiety becoming more associated from adolescence. The results inform molecular genetics research and transdiagnostic treatment approaches. The findings affirm the need to continue examining the classification of mood and anxiety disorders in diagnostic systems.
Traditional diagnostic systems went beyond empirical evidence on the structure of mental health. Consequently, these diagnoses do not depict psychopathology accurately, and their validity in research ...and utility in clinicalpractice are therefore limited. The Hierarchical Taxonomy of Psychopathology (HiTOP) consortium proposed a model based on structural evidence. It addresses problems of diagnostic heterogeneity, comorbidity, and unreliability. We review the HiTOP model, supporting evidence, and conceptualization of psychopathology in this hierarchical dimensional framework. The system is not yet comprehensive, and we describe the processes for improving and expanding it. We summarize data on the ability of HiTOP to predict and explain etiology (genetic, environmental, and neurobiological), risk factors, outcomes, and treatment response. We describe progress in the development of HiTOP-based measures and in clinical implementation of the system. Finally, we review outstanding challenges and the research agenda. HiTOP is of practical utility already, and its ongoing development will produce a transformative map of psychopathology.
This systematic review synthesizes evidence from research investigating the biological correlates of latent transdiagnostic dimensions of psychopathology (e.g., the p-factor, internalizing, ...externalizing) across the lifespan. Eligibility criteria captured genomic and neuroimaging studies investigating general and/or specific dimensions in general population samples across all age groups. MEDLINE, Embase, and PsycINFO were searched for relevant studies published up to March 2023 and 46 studies were selected for inclusion. The results revealed several biological correlates consistently associated with transdiagnostic dimensions of psychopathology, including polygenic scores for ADHD and neuroticism, global surface area and global gray matter volume. Shared and unique associations between symptom dimensions are highlighted, as are potential age-specific differences in biological associations. Findings are interpreted with reference to key methodological differences across studies. The included studies provide compelling evidence that the general dimension of psychopathology reflects common underlying genetic and neurobiological vulnerabilities that are shared across diverse manifestations of mental illness. Substantive interpretations of general psychopathology in the context of genetic and neurobiological evidence are discussed.
•First systematic review examining the biological correlates of latent transdiagnostic dimensions of psychopathology across the lifespan.•The review examines associations with a broad range of biological variables (genomic, brain structural, brain functional).•The review examines several transdiagnostic phenotypes at various levels of specificity (general and specific transdiagnostic symptom dimensions).•General psychopathology reflects underlying genetic and neurobiological vulnerabilities shared across diverse expressions of mental illness.•Detailed consideration given to methodological differences in latent variable approaches and biological measurement across studies.
Adolescent nonsuicidal self-injury (NSSI) is a significant risk factor for suicidal behavior and an important clinical marker of psychopathology. NSSI is especially common in adolescent girls. A ...number of psychosocial correlates of adolescent NSSI have been identified, including problems characterized by disinhibition and negative affectivity. However, it is unknown whether these characteristics prospectively predict first-onset NSSI, limiting our understanding of its etiology and prevention. The current study addresses this gap in the literature.
Participants in the Adolescent Development of Emotion and Personality Traits (ADEPT) project at Stony Brook University who had not experienced NSSI at baseline (462 girls, mean age = 14.39 years, SD = 0.62 years) completed baseline measures of hypothesized risk factors related to problems with disinhibition and negative affectivity, including adolescent psychopathology, personality and clinical traits, and parental psychopathology. First onset of NSSI was monitored at 9-month intervals by in-person and telephone interviews over the next 36 months.
There were 42 first onsets of NSSI (9.1%) in the 3 years since baseline. First-onset NSSI was independently predicted by adolescents' low conscientiousness, high avoidance, and parental substance abuse at baseline. The composite risk index predicting first-onset NSSI demonstrated good accuracy for identifying girls who will start self-injuring (area under the curve = 0.78, sensitivity = 0.85, specificity = 0.57).
These results highlight the role of disinhibition and avoidance in the development of NSSI. The risk index predicting NSSI onset may help to guide the design and application of novel interventions to prevent this condition in adolescent girls.
Genetic factors contribute to individual differences in the severity of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). A portion of genetic predisposition can be captured using polygenic risk scores (PRS). ...Relatively little is known about the associations between PRS and COVID-19 severity or post-acute COVID-19 in community-dwelling individuals.
Participants in this study were 983 World Trade Center responders infected for the first time with SARS-CoV-2 (mean age at infection = 56.06; 93.4% male; 82.7% European ancestry). Seventy-five (7.6%) responders were in the severe COVID-19 category; 306 (31.1%) reported at least one post-acute COVID-19 symptom at 4-week follow-up. Analyses were adjusted for population stratification and demographic covariates.
The asthma PRS was associated with severe COVID-19 category (odds ratio OR = 1.61, 95% confidence interval: 1.17-2.21) and more severe COVID-19 symptomatology (β = .09, p = .01), independently of respiratory disease diagnosis. Severe COVID-19 category was also associated with the allergic disease PRS (OR = 1.97, 1.26-3.07) and the PRS for COVID-19 hospitalization (OR = 1.35, 1.01-1.82). PRS for coronary artery disease and type II diabetes were not associated with COVID-19 severity.
Recently developed polygenic biomarkers for asthma, allergic disease, and COVID-19 hospitalization capture some of the individual differences in severity and clinical course of COVID-19 illness in a community population.
Objective
The role of common and symptom‐specific genetic and environmental influences in maintaining eating disorder symptoms across development remains unclear. This study investigates the ...continuity and change of etiological influences on drive for thinness, bulimia, and body dissatisfaction symptoms and their co‐occurrence, across adolescence and emerging adulthood.
Method
In total, 2,629 adolescent twins (mean age = 15.20, SD = 1.95) reported eating disorders symptoms across three waves of data collection. Biometric common pathways model was fitted to estimate genetic and environmental contributions to the continuity of each symptom over time, as well as time‐ and symptom‐specific influences.
Results
Drive for thinness and body dissatisfaction symptoms showed a pattern of high continuity across development and high correlations with each other, whereas bulimia symptoms were moderately stable and less associated with the other two symptoms. Latent factors reflecting continuity of each symptom were largely under genetic influence (Al = 0.60–0.82). New genetic influences contributing to change in the developmental course of symptoms were observed in emerging adulthood. Genetic influences correlated considerably between the three symptoms. Non‐shared environmental influences were largely time‐and symptom‐specific, but some contributed moderately to the continuity across development (El = 0.18–0.40). The etiological overlap was larger between drive for thinness and body dissatisfaction symptoms than with bulimia symptoms.
Discussion
The results provide preliminary evidence that stable as well as newly emerging genetic influences contribute to the co‐occurrence of drive for thinness, bulimia, and body dissatisfaction symptoms across adolescence and emerging adulthood. Conversely, environmental influences were less stable and contributed to change in symptoms over time.
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