As a result, the world’s largest funder of mental-health science, the US National Institute of Mental Health, changed the way it funded research.
Like so much in medical research, efforts are governed by what research will be funded, and ideally what will lead to the discovery of a drug or intervention that can generate billions of dollars of revenues. Those researchers who figured this stuff out decades ago don't need to be considered.
Beginning in 2011, it began demanding more studies of the biological basis of disorders, instead of their symptoms, under a programme called the Research Domain Criteria. There has since been an explosion of research into the biological basis of psychopathology, with studies focusing on genetics and neuroanatomy, among other fields.
"Focusing on genetics and neuroanatomy" is the perfect way to miss the forest for the trees.
But if researchers hoped to demystify psychopathology, they still have a long way to go: the key finding has been just how complex psychopathology really is.
Complexity doesn't have be difficult to understand.
This paragraph in the article says it all:
As a result, the world’s largest funder of mental-health science, the US National Institute of Mental Health, changed the way it funded research.
Like so much in medical research, efforts are governed by what research will be funded, and ideally what will lead to the discovery of a drug or intervention that can generate billions of dollars of revenues. Those researchers who figured this stuff out decades ago don't need to be considered.
Beginning in 2011, it began demanding more studies of the biological basis of disorders, instead of their symptoms, under a programme called the Research Domain Criteria. There has since been an explosion of research into the biological basis of psychopathology, with studies focusing on genetics and neuroanatomy, among other fields.
"Focusing on genetics and neuroanatomy" is the perfect way to miss the forest for the trees.
But if researchers hoped to demystify psychopathology, they still have a long way to go: the key finding has been just how complex psychopathology really is.
Complexity doesn't have be difficult to understand.
Sigh.