Taxometrics: Toward a new diagnostic scheme for psychopathology.

Abstract

T he Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) provides a common language for mental health professionals and enhances the reliability of diagnoses; however, it does have its limitations. Notably, there is little basis for its current categorical representation of diagnostic entities.In this volume, Schmidt, Kotov, and Joiner present a much needed, alternative approach to developing the DSM-taxometrics, an applied data-analysis tool that discerns categories from continua and establishes defining indicators of identified categories. Integrating the work of Paul Meehl and colleagues, the book begins the ambitious task of "true diagnostics," that is, the application of taxometrics to psychopathological syndromes. In the book, the authors review what is known about the categorical nature of diagnoses, provide a user-friendly primer about taxometrics, and describe the methodology for applying taxometric procedures to diagnostic categories in the DSM. This provocative book will be of interest to any mental health professional who is committed to the refinement of diagnostic procedures.

Taxometric analysis: Introduction and overview

“…Readers who are interested in more comprehensive, technical explanations of taxometric procedures are encouraged to refer to the book written by Schmidt et al 10 Biological sex is a phenomenon which is widely agreed upon as taxonic in nature with a definitive criterion in the vast majority of cases. Because most psychological constructs do not currently have perfect indicators, for this example, imagine that only imperfect indicators of biological sex were available.…”

Ethics Related to Mental Illnesses and Addictions

“…It garnered praise from the psychiatric community because its multiple axes of contributing problems represented the disorders' complexity more accurately. Moreover, the categories and diagnostic criteria had higher inter-rater reliability (Pincus & McQueen, 2002;Schmidt et al, 2004;Wilson & Skodol, 1994). DSM- III-R (1987) included various clarifications and corrections.…”

Characteristics and Comorbid Symptoms of Older Adults Reporting Death Ideation

“…Our paper does not propose to answer the question of whether a categorical model is better than a dimensional model, which would best be answered with taxometric analyses; 1718 rather, we are interested in describing a categorical model that could be compared in future studies with a dimensional model in terms of its accuracy in characterizing the latent construct of suicide risk.…”