The p Factor: One General Psychopathology Factor in the Structure of Psychiatric Disorders?

ABSTRACT: Mental disorders traditionally have been viewed as distinct, episodic, and categorical conditions. This view has been challenged by evidence that many disorders are sequentially comorbid, recurrent/chronic, and exist on a continuum. Using the Dunedin Multidisciplinary Health and Development Study, we examined the structure of psychopathology, taking into account dimensionality, persistence, co-occurrence, and sequential comorbidity of mental disorders across 20 years, from adolescence to midlife. Psychiatric disorders were initially explained by three higher-order factors (Internalizing, Externalizing, and Thought Disorder) but explained even better with one General Psychopathology dimension. We have called this dimension the p factor because it conceptually parallels a familiar dimension

SUBMITTER: Caspi A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4209412 | biostudies-literature | 2014 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature