Table 1.

Prominent mental illness frameworks

	DSM	HiTOP	RDoC
Empirical foundation	Historically was based on clinical heuristics; recent revisions are guided by systematic review of research evidence	Data driven; observed clustering of psychopathology signs and symptoms	Expert workgroup interpretation of research evidence
Structure	Signs and symptoms are organized into diagnoses, which are in turn grouped into chapters on the basis of shared phenomenology and/or presumed etiology; some disorders include subtypes	Hierarchical system of broad constructs near the top and homogeneous symptom components near the bottom	Five domains of functioning (e.g., negative valence) each divided into 3 to 6 constructs (e.g., acute threat); domains encompass 7 units of analysis, from molecules to verbal report
Dimensional vs categorical	Predominantly categorical, but contains optional dimensional elements for screening and diagnosis, such as the Alternative Model for Personality Disorder	Dimensional, but able to incorporate categories (“taxa”) if empirically warranted	Explicitly focused on dimensional processes
Timeframe for clinical implementation	Widely used	Able to guide assessment and treatment, but currently not disseminated widely for direct clinical application	Limited prospects for clinical applications in near-term (e.g., assessment, treatment, communication)
Etiology	Diagnosis generally is based on observed signs and symptoms, not putative causes (posttraumatic stress disorder is an exception)	Model structure depends on observed (phenotypic) clustering—not necessarily etiological coherence—of clinical problems; model dimensions can be validated with respect to putative etiological factors	Conceptualizes clinical problems as “brain disorders”; neurobiological correlates of mental illness are emphasized

Note. DSM = Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders; HiTOP = Hierarchical Taxonomy of Psychopathology; RDoC = Research Domain Criteria.