It is now clear that traditional approaches to diagnosing mental illness are hindering rather than helping progress in identifying underlying mechanisms, and improving treatment outcomes. This research program is taking a new approach, following the patterns in how symptoms naturally co-occur to define so-called ‘empirical phenotypes’. We are comparing different diagnostic systems to determine which ones work best for different purposes, and will develop tools for using them in practice.
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Example of rescoring individual symptoms of DSM major depressive disorder into narrow (e.g., depressed mood and anhedonia) and broad (e.g., internalizing) empirical phenotypes
![[Picture]](https://spaces-cdn.owlstown.com/blobs/1zppx392pfnj37m8cm1gntz0p0vn.jpeg){kind=link}