Can psychopathology and neuroscience coexist in psychiatric classifications?

Magnetic resonance diffusion tensor imaging in psychiatry: a narrative review of its potential role in diagnosis

Diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) is an imaging technique that uses magnetic resonance. It measures the diffusion of water molecules in tissues, which can occur either without restriction (i.e., in an isotropic manner) or limited by some obstacles, such as cell membranes (i.e., in an anisotropic manner). Diffusion is most often measured in terms of, inter alia, fractional anisotropy (FA), mean diffusivity (MD), radial diffusivity (RD), and axial diffusivity (AD). DTI allows us to reconstruct, visualize, and evaluate certain qualities of white matter. To date, many studies have sought to associate various changes in the distribution of diffusion within the brain with mental diseases and disorders. A better understanding of white matter integrity disorders can help us recognize the causes of diseases, as well as help create objective methods of psychiatric diagnosis, identify biomarkers of mental illness, and improve pharmacotherapy. The aim of this work is to present the characteristics of DTI as well as current research on its use in schizophrenia, affective disorders, and other mental disorders.

Neurodevelopmental disorders-the history and future of a diagnostic concept

This article describes the history of the diagnostic class of neurodevelopmental disorders (NDDs) up to DSM-5. We further analyze how the development of genetics will transform the classification and diagnosis of NDDs. In DSM-5, NDDs include intellectual disability (ID), autism spectrum disorder (ASD), and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Physicians in German-, French- and English-speaking countries (eg, Weikard, Georget, Esquirol, Down, Asperger, and Kanner) contributed to the phenomenological definitions of these disorders throughout the 18th and 20th centuries. These diagnostic categories show considerable comorbidity and phenotypic overlap. NDDs are one of the chapters of psychiatric nosology most likely to benefit from the approach advocated by the National Institute of Mental Health's Research Domain Criteria project. Genetic research supports the hypothesis that ID, ASD, ADHD, schizophrenia, and bipolar disorder lie on a neurodevelopmental continuum. The identification of recurrently observed copy number variants and disruptive gene variants in ASD (eg, CDH8, 16p11.2, SCN2A) led to the adoption of the genotype-first approach to characterize individuals at the etiological level.
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The road ahead in clinical network neuroscience

Clinical network neuroscience, the study of brain network topology in neurological and psychiatric diseases, has become a mainstay field within clinical neuroscience. Being a multidisciplinary group of clinical network neuroscience experts based in The Netherlands, we often discuss the current state of the art and possible avenues for future investigations. These discussions revolve around questions like "How do dynamic processes alter the underlying structural network?" and "Can we use network neuroscience for disease classification?" This opinion paper is an incomplete overview of these discussions and expands on ten questions that may potentially advance the field. By no means intended as a review of the current state of the field, it is instead meant as a conversation starter and source of inspiration to others.