Mental disorders are amongst the most relevant public health challenges of the 21st century. Currently, diagnosis is symptom-focused based on clinical presentation. However, this complicates diagnosis because clinical features overlap between psychiatric conditions and symptoms at early disease stages are often unspecific and not yet severe enough to meet diagnostic criteria, given severity usually correlates with disease progression. Moreover, neglecting the underlying molecular pathologies hinders the success of treatment. Therefore, there is an urgent need to develop objective measures that facilitate diagnosis and drive the development of new therapies that can be tailored to the individual.
Our Research Topic aims to draw attention to current challenges in psychiatry and to present biomolecular approaches to address them. This includes improved earlier diagnosis, as young people typically present with subthreshold mental disorders, characterized by mixed, unspecific symptoms common to many psychi-atric conditions. It is also known that various factors, systems, and individual predispositions play a role in the pathogenesis and pathophysiology of mental disorders. However, current pharmacological treatment does not yet account for this heterogeneity. Therefore, there is a need to advance the development of new medications and the implementation of more personalized measurement-based treatment strategies. This requires a deeper understanding of the molecular pathology behind mental disorders and the develop-ment of clinically relevant biomarkers enabling prediction (theranostics) and monitoring of treatment re-sponse.
This Research Topic welcomes research articles, reviews, and mini-reviews, case reports on the following but not limited to:
• Differential diagnosis challenges and new diagnostic approaches
• Implementation of transdiagnostic principles
• Technological developments towards advanced phenotypic profiling in mental health
• Identification of clinical and biological signatures linked to molecular underpinnings enabling pre-diction and monitoring of treatment response
• Implementation of pharmacogenomics approaches in psychiatry
• Translational research on molecular pathways involved in mental disorders
• Tailoring intervention strategies in mental health
Mental disorders are amongst the most relevant public health challenges of the 21st century. Currently, diagnosis is symptom-focused based on clinical presentation. However, this complicates diagnosis because clinical features overlap between psychiatric conditions and symptoms at early disease stages are often unspecific and not yet severe enough to meet diagnostic criteria, given severity usually correlates with disease progression. Moreover, neglecting the underlying molecular pathologies hinders the success of treatment. Therefore, there is an urgent need to develop objective measures that facilitate diagnosis and drive the development of new therapies that can be tailored to the individual.
Our Research Topic aims to draw attention to current challenges in psychiatry and to present biomolecular approaches to address them. This includes improved earlier diagnosis, as young people typically present with subthreshold mental disorders, characterized by mixed, unspecific symptoms common to many psychi-atric conditions. It is also known that various factors, systems, and individual predispositions play a role in the pathogenesis and pathophysiology of mental disorders. However, current pharmacological treatment does not yet account for this heterogeneity. Therefore, there is a need to advance the development of new medications and the implementation of more personalized measurement-based treatment strategies. This requires a deeper understanding of the molecular pathology behind mental disorders and the develop-ment of clinically relevant biomarkers enabling prediction (theranostics) and monitoring of treatment re-sponse.
This Research Topic welcomes research articles, reviews, and mini-reviews, case reports on the following but not limited to:
• Differential diagnosis challenges and new diagnostic approaches
• Implementation of transdiagnostic principles
• Technological developments towards advanced phenotypic profiling in mental health
• Identification of clinical and biological signatures linked to molecular underpinnings enabling pre-diction and monitoring of treatment response
• Implementation of pharmacogenomics approaches in psychiatry
• Translational research on molecular pathways involved in mental disorders
• Tailoring intervention strategies in mental health