Skip to main content
Review Article

Misunderstanding RDoC

Published Online:https://doi.org/10.1027/2151-2604/a000301

Abstract. Mental illness is fundamentally mental, by definition about psychological rather than biological phenomena, but biological phenomena play key roles in understanding, preventing, and treating mental illness. The Research Domain Criteria (RDoC) initiative of the US National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) is an unusually ambitious effort to foster integration of psychological and biological science in the service of psychopathology research. Some key features and common misunderstandings of RDoC are discussed here.

References

  • Beauchaine, T. P. & Klein, D. N. (2017). Developmental psychopathology and the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. In T. P. BeauchaineS. P. HinshawEds., Child and adolescent psychopathology (3rd ed., pp. 33–67). Hoboken, NJ: Wiley. First citation in articleGoogle Scholar

  • Berenbaum, H. (2013). Classification and psychopathology research. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 122, 894–901. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0033096 First citation in articleCrossrefGoogle Scholar

  • Craver, C. F. & Bechtel, W. (2007). Top-down causation without top-down causes. Biology and Philosophy, 22, 547–563. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10539-006-9028-8 First citation in articleCrossrefGoogle Scholar

  • Cuthbert, B. N. & Insel, T. R. (2013). Toward the future of psychiatric diagnosis: The seven pillars of RDoC. BMC Medicine, 11, 126. https://doi.org/10.1186/1741-7015-11-126 First citation in articleCrossrefGoogle Scholar

  • Cuthbert, B. N. & Kozak, M. J. (2013). Constructing constructs for psychopathology: The NIMH research domain criteria. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 122, 928–937. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0034028 First citation in articleCrossrefGoogle Scholar

  • Fabiani, M. (2015). The embodied brain. Psychophysiology, 52, 1–5. https://doi.org/10.1111/psyp.12381 First citation in articleCrossrefGoogle Scholar

  • Goldfried, M. R. (2016). On possible consequences of National Institute of Mental Health funding for psychotherapy research and training. Professional Psychology: Research and Practice, 47, 77–83. https://doi.org/10.1037/pro0000034 First citation in articleCrossrefGoogle Scholar

  • Gottesman, I. I. & Shields, J. (1972). Schizophrenia and genetics: A twin study vantage point. New York, NY: Academic Press. First citation in articleGoogle Scholar

  • Hyman, S. E. (1998). NIMH during the tenure of Director Steven E. Hyman, MD: The now and future of NIMH. The American Journal of Psychiatry, 155(Suppl.), 36–40. First citation in articleGoogle Scholar

  • Hyman, S. E. (2010). The diagnosis of mental disorders: The problem of reification. Annual Review of Clinical Psychology, 6, 155–179. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.clinpsy.3.022806.091532 First citation in articleCrossrefGoogle Scholar

  • Iacono, W. G. (2016). Achieving success with the research domain criteria (RDoC): Going beyond the matrix. Psychophysiology, 53, 308–311. https://doi.org/10.1111/psyp.12584 First citation in articleCrossrefGoogle Scholar

  • Iacono, W. G., Malone, S. M. & Vrieze, S. I. (2017). Endophenotype best practices. International Journal of Psychophysiology, 111, 115–144. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijpsycho.2016.07.516 First citation in articleCrossrefGoogle Scholar

  • Iacono, W. G., Vaidyanathan, U., Vrieze, S. I. & Malone, S. M. (2014). Knowns and unknowns for psychophysiological endophenotypes: Integration and response to commentaries. Psychophysiology, 51, 1339–1347. https://doi.org/10.1111/psyp.12358 First citation in articleCrossrefGoogle Scholar

  • Infantolino, Z. P., Crocker, L. D., Heller, W., Yee, C. M. & Miller, G. A. (2017). Psychophysiology in pursuit of psychopathology. In J. T. CacioppoL. G. TassinaryG. G. BerntsonEds., Handbook of psychophysiology (4th ed., pp. 548–564). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/9781107415782.025 First citation in articleGoogle Scholar

  • Insel, T. R., Cuthbert, B. N., Garvey, M. A., Heinssen, R. K., Pine, D. S., Quinn, K. J., … Wang, P. S. (2010). Research domain criteria: Toward a new classification framework for research on mental disorders. The American Journal of Psychiatry, 167, 748–751. https://doi.org/10.1176/appi.ajp.2010.09091379 First citation in articleCrossrefGoogle Scholar

  • Johnson, W. (2010). Understanding the genetics of intelligence: Can height help? Can corn oil? Current Directions in Psychological Science, 19, 177–182. https://doi.org/10.1177/0963721410370136 First citation in articleCrossrefGoogle Scholar

  • Kendler, K. S. (2005). Toward a philosophical structure for psychiatry. The American Journal of Psychiatry, 162, 433–440. https://doi.org/10.1176/appi.ajp.162.3.433 First citation in articleCrossrefGoogle Scholar

  • Kozak, M. J. (2015). Commentary on Marvin Goldfried’s “possible consequences of National Institute of Mental Health funding for psychotherapy research and training”. Unpublished manuscript, National Institute of Mental Health, Bethesda, MD First citation in articleGoogle Scholar

  • Kozak, M. J. & Cuthbert, B. N. (2016). The NIMH research domain criteria initiative: Background, issues, and pragmatics. Psychophysiology, 53, 286–297. https://doi.org/10.1111/psyp.12518 First citation in articleCrossrefGoogle Scholar

  • Lenzenweger, M. F. (2010). Schizotypy and schizophrenia: The view from experimental psychopathology. New York, NY: Guilford Press. First citation in articleGoogle Scholar

  • Lilienfeld, S. O. (2007). Cognitive neuroscience and depression: Legitimate versus illegitimate reductionism and five challenges. Cognitive Therapy and Research, 31, 263–272. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10608-007-9127-0 First citation in articleCrossrefGoogle Scholar

  • Lilienfeld, S. O. (2014). The research domain criteria (RDoC): An analysis of methodological and conceptual challenges. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 62, 129–139. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.brat.2014.07.019 First citation in articleCrossrefGoogle Scholar

  • Lilienfeld, S. O. & Treadway, M. T. (2016). Clashing diagnostic approaches: DSM-ICD versus RDoC. Annual Review of Clinical Psychology, 12, 435–463. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-clinpsy-021815-093122 First citation in articleCrossrefGoogle Scholar

  • McEwen, B. S. (2012). Brain on stress: How the social environment gets under the skin. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 109(Suppl. 2), 17180–17185. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1121254109 First citation in articleCrossrefGoogle Scholar

  • Miller, G. A. (1996). How we think about cognition, emotion, and biology in psychopathology. Psychophysiology, 33, 615–628. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1469-8986.1996.tb02356.x First citation in articleCrossrefGoogle Scholar

  • Miller, G. A. (2000). Editorial. Psychophysiology, 37, 1–4. First citation in articleCrossrefGoogle Scholar

  • Miller, G. A. (2010). Mistreating psychology in the decades of the brain. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 5, 716–743. https://doi.org/10.1177/1745691610388774 First citation in articleCrossrefGoogle Scholar

  • Miller, G. A., Clayson, P. E. & Yee, C. M. (2014). Hunting genes, hunting endophenotypes. Psychophysiology, 51, 1329–1330. https://doi.org/10.1111/psyp.12354 First citation in articleCrossrefGoogle Scholar

  • Miller, G. A. & Rockstroh, B. S. (2013). Endophenotypes in psychopathology research: Where do we stand? Annual Review of Clinical Psychology, 9, 117–213. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-clinpsy-050212-185540 First citation in articleCrossrefGoogle Scholar

  • Miller, G. A., Rockstroh, B. S., Hamilton, H. K. & Yee, C. M. (2016). Psychophysiology as a core strategy in RDoC. Psychophysiology, 53, 410–414. https://doi.org/10.1111/psyp.12581 First citation in articleCrossrefGoogle Scholar

  • Morris, S. E. & Cuthbert, B. N. (2012). Research domain criteria: Cognitive systems, neural circuits, and dimensions of behavior. Dialogues Clinical Neuroscience, 14, 29–37. First citation in articleGoogle Scholar

  • Patrick, C. J., Fowles, D. C. & Krueger, R. F. (2009). Triarchic conceptualization of psychopathy: Developmental origins of disinhibition, boldness, and meanness. Development and Psychopathology, 21, 913–938. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0954579409000492 First citation in articleCrossrefGoogle Scholar

  • Sanislow, C. A., Pine, D. S., Quinn, K. J., Kozak, M. J., Garvey, M. A., Heinssen, R. K., … Cuthbert, B. N. (2010). Developing constructs for psychopathology research: Research domain criteria. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 119, 631–639. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0020909 First citation in articleCrossrefGoogle Scholar

  • Stern, J. A. (1964). Toward a definition of psychophysiology. Psychophysiology, 1, 90–91. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1469-8986.1964.tb02626.x First citation in articleCrossrefGoogle Scholar

  • Weinberger, D. R., Glick, I. D. & Klein, D. F. (2015). Whither research domain criteria (RDoC)? The good, the bad, and the ugly. JAMA Psychiatry, 72, 1161–1162. https://doi.org/10.1001/jamapsychiatry.2015.1743 First citation in articleCrossrefGoogle Scholar

  • Widiger, T. A. & Clark, L. A. (2000). Toward DSM-V and the classification of psychopathology. Psychological Bulletin, 126, 946–963. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.126.6.946 First citation in articleCrossrefGoogle Scholar

  • Wright, C. & Bechtel, W. (2007). Mechanisms and psychological explanation. In P. ThagardEd., Handbook of the philosophy of science: Vol. 4. Philosophy of psychology and cognitive science (pp. 31–79). New York, NY: Elsevier. https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-044451540-7/50019-0 First citation in articleGoogle Scholar

  • Yee, C. M., Javitt, D. C. & Miller, G. A. (2015). Replacing DSM categorical analyses with dimensional analyses in psychiatry research: The research domain criteria initiative. JAMA Psychiatry, 72, 1159–1160. https://doi.org/10.1001/jamapsychiatry.2015.1900 First citation in articleCrossrefGoogle Scholar