THE DSM 5, THE BIOLOGICAL BASIS OF BEHAVIOR & THE NEED FOR MITIGATION

• ​The point is that there is no such thing as a non-biological mental illness ---​
  • ​But more to the point there is no such thing as HUMAN BEHAVIOR that is DIVORCED FROM BIOLOGY.

On the one hand,  the PERFECT MESSENGER for the problems with the DSM and the need to tie psychiatric disorders to the UNDERLYING BIOLOGY ---

• would seem to be the National Institute of Mental Health ----
• the American Psychiatric Assn. did more than blow off --- there was a lot of push back.

Since 2013 and NIMH's critique of the DSM ---- hundreds of other researchers are questioning the DSM and championing the need to tie psychiatric disorders to their underlying biological bases.

We've provided a lot of information on this website regarding NIMH's Research Domain Criteria Program (RDoC).

More recently, researchers have begun other studies or initiatives,  namely the BeCOME Study

The biological classification of mental disorders (BeCOME) study: a protocol for an observational deep-phenotyping study for the identification of biological subtypes.

​We need policymakers, attorneys, advocates, individuals and family members to MITIGATE the DAMAGE of the flawed classification system in the DSM, especially as it plays out in Criminal Justice.

Some of the issues also involve outdated statutes that do not appear to have a RATIONAL BASIS to current understandings of human behavior and the biological basis/es for that behavior.

What we know is that there is a BIOLOGICAL BASIS for Behavior, and in some cases we can describe quite specifically, in others less.

What is challenging CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEMS around the world among many things is ANTI-SOCIAL PERSONALITY DISORDER with the University of Pennsyslvania arguing it is neuro-developmental and other researchers view specifically as a form of ADHD --- a neurodevelopmental disorder.

This is where we need that PUBLIC HEALTH APPROACH to CRIMINAL JUSTICE.

​New Zealand Ministry of Justice (2009)

The title of the Policy Brief is "Biological Risk Factors for Involvement in Crime" --- but the paper at the end references THE BIOLOGICAL BASIS FOR HUMAN BEHAVIOR.

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​Biological Basis for Behavior Program

BeCOME Study -- Biological Classification of Mental Disorders (2020)

Affiliations

1Department of Translational Research in Psychiatry, Max Planck Institute of Psychiatry, Kraepelinstr. 2-10, 80804, Munich, Germany. 
2Department of Translational Research in Psychiatry, Max Planck Institute of Psychiatry, Kraepelinstr. 2-10, 80804, Munich, Germany.
3Max Planck Institute of Psychiatry, Munich, Germany.
4Berenson-Allen Center for Noninvasive Brain Stimulation and Division for Cognitive Neurology, Department of Neurology, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA.
5Independent Max Planck Research Group for Social Neuroscience, Max Planck Institute of Psychiatry, Munich, Germany.
6International Max Planck Research School - Translational Psychiatry (IMPRS-TP), Max Planck Institute of Psychiatry, Munich, Germany.
7Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, USA.

Abstract

Background
​
A major research finding in the field of Biological Psychiatry is that symptom-based categories of mental disorders map poorly onto dysfunctions in brain circuits or neurobiological pathways.

Many of the identified (neuro) biological dysfunctions are “transdiagnostic”, meaning that they do not reflect diagnostic boundaries but are shared by different ICD/DSM diagnoses.

The compromised biological validity of the current classification system for mental disorders impedes rather than supports the development of treatments that not only target symptoms but also the underlying pathophysiological mechanisms.

The Biological Classification of Mental Disorders (BeCOME) study aims to identify biology-based classes of mental disorders that improve the translation of novel biomedical findings into tailored clinical applications.