BJP College Seminars Series
HOME HELP FEEDBACK SUBSCRIPTIONS ARCHIVE SEARCH TABLE OF CONTENTS
Psychiatric Bulletin Advances in Psychiatric Treatment All RCPsych Journals
QUICK SEARCH:   [advanced]


     

This Article
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow Submit an eLetter
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me when eLetters are posted
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Citing Articles
Right arrow Citing Articles via HighWire
Right arrow Citing Articles via CrossRef
Right arrow Citing Articles via Google Scholar
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Mojtabai, R.
Right arrow Articles by Rieder, R. O.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by Mojtabai, R.
Right arrow Articles by Rieder, R. O.

The British Journal of Psychiatry 173: 198-202 (1998)
© 1998 The Royal College of Psychiatrists

Limitations of the symptom-oriented approach to psychiatric research

R Mojtabai and RO Rieder
Department of Psychiatry, College of Physicians and Surgeons, Columbia University, New York, USA.

BACKGROUND: We critically reviewed the arguments of the symptom- oriented researchers who propose to replace syndromes and diagnostic categories with symptoms as units of analysis in psychiatric research. METHOD: Three central arguments were examined: (a) current diagnostic categories lack reliability and validity; (b) using diagnostic categories leads to misclassification and confounding; and (c) symptom- oriented theories are clearer, easier to test, and more likely to lead to an explanation of psychopathology. These arguments are based on three assumptions respectively: (a) symptoms have higher reliability and validity; (b) underlying pathological processes are symptom- specific; and (c) elucidation of the process of symptom development will lead to (and must precede) the discovery of the causes of syndromes. RESULTS: We found little evidence supporting these assumptions and arguments based on them. CONCLUSION: There are no clear advantages in replacing syndromes with symptoms as units of analysis for psychiatric research.


This article has been cited by other articles:


Home page
 J. Neurol. Neurosurg. PsychiatryHome page
G D Honey, P C Fletcher, and E T Bullmore
Functional brain mapping of psychopathology
J. Neurol. Neurosurg. Psychiatry, April 1, 2002; 72(4): 432 - 439.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]


HOME HELP FEEDBACK SUBSCRIPTIONS ARCHIVE SEARCH TABLE OF CONTENTS
Psychiatric Bulletin Advances in Psychiatric Treatment All RCPsych Journals
Copyright © 1998 The Royal College of Psychiatrists.