title: Optimizing Prediction of Psychosocial and Clinical Outcomes With a Transdiagnostic Model of Personality Disorder.
abstract: Transdiagnostic models hold promise for transforming research and treatment practices for personality disorders (PDs), but widespread acceptance and implementation of such approaches will require persuasive evidence of construct validity and clinical utility. Toward that end, the authors examined the criterion-related validity of a transdiagnostic PD model in relation to psychosocial and clinical outcomes in a high-risk community sample of 700 young adults. Participants and their mothers completed semistructured interviews to assess young adults' PD symptomatology, psychosocial functioning, suicidality, and mental health treatment use. Bifactor modeling revealed an overarching dimension of PD severity-capturing symptoms across all PD categories-that strongly predicted all functional and clinical outcomes in multivariate analyses. Effect sizes for lower-order, specific PD processes were comparatively modest for functional outcomes; however, they provided clinically significant information about suicide risk and treatment use. The authors discuss implications of a transdiagnostic perspective for research on PD etiology, classification, and treatment.
authors.affiliation: Center for Anxiety and Related Disorders, Boston University, Boston, Massachusetts.
authors.forename: Christopher C
authors.initials: CC
authors.lastname: Conway
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California.
authors.forename: Constance
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Hammen
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia.
authors.forename: Patricia A
authors.initials: PA
authors.lastname: Brennan
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007407:Interviews as Topic; D008297:Male; D008960:Models, Psychological; D010552:Personality Assessment; D010554:Personality Disorders / Q000473:pathology* / Q000523:psychology*; D011237:Predictive Value of Tests; D011599:Psychopathology; D011613:Psychotherapy; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D055815:Young Adult