Developmental patterning of irritability enhances prediction of psychopathology in preadolescence: Improving RDoC with developmental science.
Year: 2022
Type: article
Study design: Observational Study
Abstract: The transdiagnostic importance of irritability in psychopathology has been demonstrated. However, the contribution of developmentally unfolding irritability patterns to specific clinical and neural outcomes remains an important and unanswered question. To address this gap in the literature, irritability patterns of 110 youth from a large, diverse cohort were assessed at preschool age and again at early school age (∼2.5 years later) with a dimensional irritability scale designed to capture the normal:abnormal spectrum. At preadolescence (∼6 years later), clinical outcomes (internalizing/externalizing symptoms) derived from a semistructured clinical interview and neural outcomes (characterized as gray-matter-volume abnormalities) were assessed. For clinical outcomes, preschool-age irritability alone was a transdiagnostic predictor of internalizing and externalizing symptoms at preadolescence. However, in a model including both preschool and early school age, irritability provided greater specificity, suggesting that higher irritability at early school age related to elevated preadolescent externalizing but not internalizing symptoms. In terms of neural outcomes, elevated preschool irritability did not predict preadolescent gray-matter-volume abnormality; however, irritability at early school age demonstrated an interactive effect among regions, with reduced volume in preadolescence emotional regions (e.g., amygdala, medial orbitofrontal cortex) and increased volume in other regions (e.g., cerebellum). These complex patterns highlight the contribution of a developmentally informed approach, the National Institute of Mental Health's Research Domain Criteria (RDoC) approach, to yield transdiagnostic phenotypes and multiple units of analysis. Capturing these individual differences and developmental heterogeneity can provide critical insight into the unfolding of mechanisms underlying emerging psychopathology. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).
DOI: 10.1037/abn0000655
Institutions: Northwestern University, University of Connecticut, UConn Health
Language: English
Subfield: Clinical Psychology
Field: Psychology
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: hybrid
Awards: Exercise and markers of medial temporal health in youth at-risk for psychosis, G1324750157, Generating an Earlier Science of When to Worry: A Neurodevelopmental, Transactional Approach to Characterizing Irritability Patterns Beginning in Infancy, G2483001257, Frontal-Subcortical Development, Movement Abnormalities, and Risk for Psychosis, Early Traumatic Stress Exposure: Neurodevelopmental Mechanisms of Clinical Risk, Exercise and markers of medial temporal health in youth at-risk for psychosis, G4227663496, G4688713718, G4904069253, Dimensions of Early Temper Loss and Low Concern: Clinical Utility and Mechanisms, G5732144251, Early Traumatic Stress Exposure: Neurodevelopmental Mechanisms of Clinical Risk, Developmental Characterization of Preschool Disruptive Behavior, G7359062555, 2/3 Community psychosis risk screening: An instrument development study, G8324715666, G8699015934, Northwestern University Mental Health, Earlier: Transdiagnostic, Transdisciplinary, Translational Training Program in Neurodevelopmental Mechanisms of Psychopathology
OpenAlex ID: W4288384056