Toward a Dimensional Approach to Personalized Diagnosis

Why do patients with different diagnoses respond to the same treatments, while individuals who share the same diagnosis respond to different treatments? To address this question, researchers assessed 420 people (mean age, 40) with a primary DSM-IV diagnosis of major depressive disorder, panic disorder, or post-traumatic stress disorder or with no disorder (controls). Psychiatric comorbidities were common.

Measures focused on negative mood (depression, anxiety, stress), neurocognitive function, daily functioning, and electroencephalographic (EEG) activation at rest and in response to viewing faces expressing various emotions.

Component analysis of the negative mood items revealed three core components — anhedonia, arousal, and tension — that c…