Empirically supported interventions in psychology: contributions of Research Domain Criteria

Abstract

Empirically supported interventions in psychological disorders should provide (1) evidence supporting the underlying psychological mechanisms of psychopathology to target in the intervention and (2) evidence supporting the efficacy of the intervention. However, research has been dedicated in a greater extent to efficacy than to the acquisition of empirical support for the theoretical basis of therapies. Research Domain Criteria (RDoC) emerges as a new framework to provide empirically based theories about psychological mechanisms that may be targeted in intervention and tested for its efficacy. The current review aims to demonstrate the possible applications of RDoC to design empirically supported interventions for psychological disorders. Two RDoC-inspired interventions are reviewed, and the RDoC framework is broadly explored in terms of its contributions and limitations. From preliminary evidence, RDoC offers many avenues for improving evidence-based interventions in psychology, but some limitations must be anticipated to increase the RDoC applicability to naturalistic settings.

Annual Research Review: The contributions of the RDoC research framework on understanding the neurodevelopmental origins, progression and treatment of mental illnesses

“…Similar to RDoC, PRISM study participants with a range of neuropsychiatric symptoms will be assessed using multiple methods in an attempt to parse current heterogeneous syndromes into homogeneous clusters. Additional European agency‐funded efforts consistent with an RDoC focus (Bong, Choi, Kim, Lee, & Kim, 2020; Destoop, Morrens, Coppens, & Dom, 2019; Hengartner & Lehmann, 2017; Hirjak, Wolf, & Northoff, 2019; Holroyd & Umemoto, 2016; Kleinman et al., 2015; Luyten & Fonagy, 2018) include efforts focused on intervention development (Pasion, Martins, & Barbosa, 2019), and drug discovery (Andersen et al., 2014; Fibiger, 2012; O'Tuathaigh, Moran, Zhen, & Waddington, 2017; Tricklebank, Robbins, Simmons, & Wong, 2021), and autism biomarker identification (Loth et al., 2017).…”

The Neurobiology of Anorexia Nervosa and Abnormal Reward Learning Processes: A Systematic Review

“…The reward learning subconstruct outlined within the Positive Valence Systems construct of the RDoC framework was used and is derived from emergent empirical findings using empirically supported elements that can be analyzed per construct. 8,11 The database searches yielded 616 total articles of interest, and only relevant articles that met eligibility criteria were included. The following inclusion criteria determined which articles were to be included: (1) at least one clinical sample of either acute and/or recovered adult and/or adolescent female patients with anorexia nervosa, (2) controlled studies with a healthy female control group, (3) studies published in a peer-reviewed journal, (4) English-only full articles, (5)…”