Implications of the Research Domain Criteria project for childhood anxiety and its disorders

Abstract

Anxiety disorders are among the most prevalent psychiatric disorders in youth; however, progress in treatment for childhood anxiety has stalled over the past decade. The National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) Research Domain Criteria (RDoC) project represents a shift toward a dimensional and interdisciplinary approach to psychiatric disorders; this shift can reframe developmental psychopathology for childhood anxiety and facilitate novel advances in its classification and treatment. Here we highlight constructs in the Systems for Social Processes and the Negative Valence System domains of RDoC, as they relate to childhood anxiety disorders. Childhood anxiety relates to both RDoC domains. In terms of social processes, through natural reliance on parents to reduce children's fear, attachment represents one particular social process, which plays a central role in anxiety among youth. In terms of negative valence, considerable research links threat conditioning to pediatric anxiety. Finally, fronto-amygdala circuitry relates to all three entities, as it has been shown to underly both attachment processes and threat learning, while it also has been consistently implicated in anxiety disorders across development. Through integrative and translational approaches, RDoC provides unique opportunities and simultaneous challenges for advancing the understanding and treatment of childhood anxiety disorders.

Using development and psychopathology principles to inform the Research Domain Criteria (RDoC) framework

“…It was only by modeling RDoC-informed constructs (working memory impairment) across childhood that these authors were able to identify specific factors that contributed to depression risk in adolescence. Therefore identifying continuities and discontinuities across development shows us that a complete understanding of the etiology of disorder using an RDoC approach should measure how these risk processes change over time (Franklin et al, 2015;Lebowitz, Gee, Pine, & Silverman, 2018), and consider equi-and multifinal processes.…”

No coordination required for resources allocation during colony fission in a social insect? An individual-based model reproduces empirical patterns

“…There is some evidence that househunting foragers have an intrinsic threshold of nest suitability, below which they reject a nest (Robinson et al 2014) . This could easily be implemented, including a heterogeneity of threshold between foragers as in (Cronin 2018) , with some more selective than others. A third possible modification would be to add a quorum of visiting foragers for a nest to be selected, as occurs in house-hunting Temnothorax ants (Visscher 2007) .…”

Negative peer social interactions and oxytocin levels linked to suicidal ideation in anxious youth

“…Questions have arisen though about the validity of immunoassay oxytocin measurement and of peripheral markers as indicators of central oxytocinergic functioning. For example, there is debate about the optimal measurement methods and processes (e.g., use of extracted vs. unextracted samples; use of enzyme assays vs. radio-immunoassay), as well the fluid of choice in which to measure oxytocin (i.e., saliva vs. blood, urine or CSF) (Carter et al, 2007;Kagerbauer et al, 2013;Lebowitz, Gee, Pine, & Silverman, 2018;McCullough, Churchland, & Mendez, 2013;Szeto et al, 2011;Young & Anderson, 2010). These important questions notwithstanding, a wealth of data from numerous studies support the usefulness of measuring peripheral oxytocin levels, reporting highly stable oxytocin levels over periods of several months, and associations between peripheral oxytocin levels and behavioral indicators in line with what theory would predict, and pointing to coordination between peripheral and central oxytocinergic functioning (Crockford et al, 2014;Weisman et al, 2013).…”