Mapping Research Domain Criteria using a transdiagnostic mini-RDoC assessment in mental disorders: a confirmatory factor analysis.

This study aimed to build on the relationship of well-established self-report and behavioral assessments to the latent constructs positive (PVS) and negative valence systems (NVS), cognitive systems (CS), and social processes (SP) of the Research Domain Criteria (RDoC) framework in a large transnosological population which cuts across DSM/ICD-10 disorder criteria categories. One thousand four hundred and thirty one participants (42.1% suffering from anxiety/fear-related, 18.2% from depressive, 7.9% from schizophrenia spectrum, 7.5% from bipolar, 3.4% from autism spectrum, 2.2% from other disorders, 18.4% healthy controls, and 0.2% with no diagnosis specified) recruited in studies within the German research network for mental disorders for the Phenotypic, Diagnostic and Clinical Domain Assessment Network Germany (PD-CAN) were examined with a Mini-RDoC-Assessment including behavioral and self-report measures. The respective data was analyzed with confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) to delineate the underlying latent RDoC-structure. A revised four-factor model reflecting the core domains positive and negative valence systems as well as cognitive systems and social processes showed a good fit across this sample and showed significantly better fit compared to a one factor solution. The connections between the domains PVS, NVS and SP could be substantiated, indicating a universal latent structure spanning across known nosological entities. This study is the first to give an impression on the latent structure and intercorrelations between four core Research Domain Criteria in a transnosological sample. We emphasize the possibility of using already existing and well validated self-report and behavioral measurements to capture aspects of the latent structure informed by the RDoC matrix.

Development of the COVID-19-Anxiety Questionnaire and first psychometric testing.

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic may cause psychological distress in the general population and has the potential to cause anxiety regarding COVID-19. No validated questionnaires exist for the measurement of specific COVID-19 anxiety. We modified the DSM 5 - Severity Measure for Specific Phobia-Adult scale specifically for anxiety regarding COVID-19, and report the psychometric properties from an online study with 6262 participants from the general population in Germany. We analysed internal consistency as well as concordant validity. The scale showed good internal consistency (α = 0.86) and good concordant validity (rs = 0.60) with the 2-item Generalized Anxiety Disorder measure and rs = 0.61 with self-rating of limitations in daily life caused by COVID-19 anxiety.