Making Sense of the Matrix: A Qualitative Assessment and Commentary on Connecting Psychiatric Symptom Scale Items to the Research Domain Criteria (RDoC)

The Research Domain Criteria (RDoC) initiative aims to organize research according to domains of brain function. Dysfunction within these domains leads to psychopathology that is classically measured with rating scales. Examining the correspondence between the specific measures assessed within rating scales and RDoC domains is necessary to assess the needs for new RDoC-focused scales. Such RDoC-focused scales have the potential of allowing translation of this work into the clinical domain of measuring psychopathology and designing treatment. Here, we describe an initial qualitative assessment by a group of 10 clinician-scientists of the alignment between RDoC domains and the items within five commonly used rating scales. In this commentary, we report limited correspondence and make recommendations for future work needed to address these limitations.