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2 - Targets of Treatment: Categories versus Dimensions of Psychopathology

from Part I - General Principles

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 October 2021

Joseph F. Goldberg
Affiliation:
Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York
Stephen M. Stahl
Affiliation:
University of California, San Diego
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Summary

Diagnostic systems such as the DSM have long struggled over whether to organize psychiatric disorders as black-and-white categories defined by operational criteria (where “casehood” is unambiguously either present or absent) versus dimensions of psychopathology (where certain clinical elements are present but insufficient in number or duration to meet minimum criteria that define a particular clinical condition). Clinicians, meanwhile, often tend to identify and treat prominent symptoms, with varying degrees of awareness and concern about their broader context for defining the presence or absence of a distinct syndrome. In this chapter we will examine when pharmacological treatment targets can or should be thought of as unambiguous disease categories as opposed to dimensions of psychopathology that may not always be so clear-cut.

Diagnoses are clusters of signs and symptoms that should form a coherent constellation based on their inter-relationships.

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Practical Psychopharmacology
Translating Findings From Evidence-Based Trials into Real-World Clinical Practice
, pp. 25 - 46
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2021

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