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Research on Symptoms Versus Research on Syndromes

Arguments in Favour of Allocating More Research Time to the Study of Symptoms

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

Charles G. Costello
Charles G. Costello*
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, University of Calgary, 2500 University Drive, NW, Calgary, Alberta, Canada
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Abstract

Research on symptoms may often be more fruitful than research on syndromes because: (a) the validities of psychiatric diagnoses remain questionable; (b) interview assessments of a large number of symptoms are inadequate; (c) the diagnostic approach results in problems of misclassification and confounding; (d) the dimensional/categorical issue may be more readily resolved with research using a symptom approach; (e) useful animal models of symptoms are more likely to be developed than useful animal models of syndromes; and (f) symptoms may be better phenotypes than syndromes in genetic research.

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Information
The British Journal of Psychiatry , Volume 160 , Issue 3 , March 1992 , pp. 304 - 308
Copyright
Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists, 1992 

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