Dimensional models of psychopathology: research agenda and clinical utility

Abstract

This commentary emphasizes the implications for a mental health research agenda that stem from the papers in this special section on dimensional models of psychopathology. These include the need to extend dimensional models to a wider range of psychopathology; the relationship of the dimensions described in these papers, largely based on symptom and self-report measures, to findings from current research in genetics, neuroimaging, and other domains of neuroscience; the need for new scales that can assess the entire range of relevant dimensions with modern psychometric techniques; and ways to employ these dimensions in applied clinical situations. It is concluded that hierarchical dimensional models offer powerful ways of organizing our thinking about psychopathology and will serve to guide many promising avenues of future research.