Abstract
This article offers a transdiagnostic framework for the prevention and treatment of mental health by reducing early psychopathology. The framework supports the contention that the time has come to retire dominant categorical classification systems of mental disorders (e.g. DSM and ICD), and the current prevailing biomedical model of mental illness by moving to a psychosocial model of psychopathology. This entails reclaiming and integrating the long-standing legacy of psychology with recent advances in neuroscience and related disciplines. To this end, this conceptual paper synthesizes and integrates the extant literature and empirical findings, takes a scientist-practitioner stance, and draws on recent developments in transdiagnostic approaches to mental health, psychotherapy integration and advances in modern attachment theory. The advantages of this approach are that: 1) Clarifies the existing confusion surrounding the myriad of different interventions available; 2) Enables consistent funding guidelines from healthcare and community education systems; 3) Is more likely to have a greater positive impact for most people; 4) Reduces general psychopathology risks in childhood; 5) Avoids the challenge that prevention is less successful in later life; 6) Better addresses the stigma associated with mental illness; and 7) Maximizes the efficiency of interventions.
Highlights
This entails reclaiming and integrating the long-standing legacy of psychology with recent advances in neuroscience and related disciplines. This conceptual paper synthesizes and integrates the extant literature and empirical findings, takes a scientist-practitioner stance, and draws on recent developments in transdiagnostic approaches to mental health, psychotherapy integration and advances in modern attachment theory. The advantages of this approach are that: 1) Clarifies the existing confusion surrounding the myriad of different interventions available; 2) Enables consistent funding guidelines from healthcare and community education systems; 3) Is more likely to have a greater positive impact for most people; 4) Reduces general psychopathology risks in childhood; 5) Avoids the challenge that prevention is less successful in later life; 6) Better addresses the stigma associated with mental illness; and 7) Maximizes the efficiency of interventions
Current traditional biomedical models that use categorical diagnostic approaches to mental health, such as those codified in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM)—created by the American Psychiatric Association (APA), and the International Classification of Diseases (ICD)—developed by the World Health Organization (WHO), have wielded a strong legacy in academic research, the mental health industry, and society at large (Dalgleish et al, 2020)
A further set of criticisms of categorical systems relates to what some authors (Ben-Zeev et al, 2010; Corrigan & Watson, 2002) refer to as the “paradox of self-stigma” by noting the negative implications of public stigma, self-stigma, and label avoidance resulting from using dimensional approaches to nosology such as the DSM, and urges clinicians to educate their clients and the public about the risk of labelling
Summary
The call made by psychologists and scholars to abandon the “Disease Model” of Mental Health and move to a “Psychosocial Model” abundant in the extant literature (Allsopp et al, 2019; Awenat et al, 2013; Bakker, 2019; Bentall, 2014; Deacon, 2013; Goldacre, 2014; Guerin, 2017; Hengartner & Lehmann, 2017; Kinderman, 2017; Middleton, 2015; Pemberton & Wainwright, 2014; Timimi, 2014) can no longer be ignored. Current traditional biomedical models that use categorical diagnostic approaches to mental health, such as those codified in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM)—created by the American Psychiatric Association (APA), and the International Classification of Diseases (ICD)—developed by the World Health Organization (WHO), have wielded a strong legacy in academic research, the mental health industry, and society at large (Dalgleish et al, 2020). The developments of their respective latest editions, the DSM-5 and ICD-11, revived contentions related to the nosology of psychiatry (Stein et al, 2013). It is important to acknowledge that categorical approaches have provided important benefits
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