Excerpts from


Psychol Assess. Author manuscript; available in PMC 2015 Dec 1.


Published in final edited form as:

Psychol Assess. 2014 Dec; 26(4): 1212Ð1224.

Published online 2014 Sep 29. doi:Ê 10.1037/pas0000023

PMCID: PMC4274231

NIHMSID: NIHMS622579

Initial Interpretation and Evaluation of a Profile-Based Classification System for the Anxiety and Mood Disorders: Incremental Validity Compared to DSM-IV Categories

Anthony J. Rosellini and Timothy A. Brown

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... Including profile indicators that cut across several of the current emotional disorder categories may also increase diagnostic reliability and validity. 

For instance, rather than assigning a diagnosis of panic disorder, hypochondriasis, or both, a patient reporting recent out of the blue panic attacks, lifelong worry about heart disease that triggers panic attacks, and reassurance seeking behaviors (e.g., going to the ER when having cued and uncued attacks) could be characterized by a single profile type with elevated levels of autonomic surges and somatic anxiety. 


Use of a profile approach based on shared emotional disorder features could 


Although problems with the reliability and validity inherent to categorical diagnoses are ubiquitous throughout DSM, it is equally important to recognize the clinical utility of diagnostic categories (see First, 2005, Shedler et al., 2010). 


In other words, although empirically robust, many clinicians would consider it to be premature to adopt a purely dimensional approach to classifying psychopathology. As a result, emphasis has been placed on developing hybrid systems that utilize both dimensional and categorical components (Maser et al., 2009; Morey et al., 2012; Trull, 2012; Trull & Widiger, 2008). 


Hybrid approaches offer advantages over 


by appreciating the continuous nature of psychopathological constructs as well as the clinical necessity of diagnostic categories. 

For example, Section III of DSM-5 (APA, 2013) outlines an alternative model for classifying the personality disorders in which clinicians can diagnose six disorders based on relative elevations across an array of different personality traits (i.e., profiles). 


Moreover, several studies have used mixture modeling to evaluate integrative classification approaches by 


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