Abstract
Irritability is a transdiagnostic phenomenon that, despite its ubiquity and significant impact, is poorly conceptualised, defined and measured. As it lacks specificity, efforts to examine irritability in adults by using a diagnostic category perspective have been hamstrung. Therefore, using a Research Domain Criteria (RDoC) approach to examine irritability in adults, which spans many constructs and domains, may have a better chance of yielding underlying mechanisms that can then be mapped onto various diagnostic categories. Recently, a model has been proposed for irritability in children and adolescents that uses the RDoC framework; however, this model, which accounts for chronic, persistent irritability, may not necessarily transpose to adults. Therefore, use of the RDoC framework to examine irritability in adults is urgently needed, as it may shed light on this currently amorphous phenomenon and the many disorders within which it operates.
Highlights
Irritability is a transdiagnostic phenomenon that, despite its ubiquity and significant impact, is poorly conceptualised, defined and measured
The long-awaited update of the DSM in 2013 was upstaged somewhat by the concurrent release of the Research Domain Criteria (RDoC), which declared a divergence in research direction
Irritability is an optimal candidate for examination through the RDoC framework, as it is transdiagnostic and widely experienced, and by understanding it as a phenomenon, effective interventions can be developed to improve outcomes and prognosis
Summary
They are more sensitive, and so their response is likely to be ‘exaggerated’, resulting in anger or aggression. Irritable children have been proposed to be impaired in their ability to engage strategies to regulate their emotional responses with attentional shifting and language. Once the individual becomes frustrated, they are impaired in their ability to regulate their emotional responses. These components have been theorised as the driving underlying processes that lead to chronic or persistent irritability with temper/behavioural outbursts, and are based on neuroimaging and behavioural data. It is important to bear in mind that the RDoC components that have been postulated to underlie irritability in children and adolescents may not meaningfully inform irritability observed in adults
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