This revised application for a Mentored Research Scientist Development Award (K01) outlines a 5-year training plan that will prepare the candidate for an independent research career focusing on the study of emotional disorders and their comorbidity. The candidate's career goal is to investigate the latent boundaries that separate the mood and anxiety disorders from one another and from normal emotions and to use this knowledge to enhance the classification and assessment of emotional disturbance. However, while the candidate has a strong background in the anxiety disorders and in Meehl's taxometric method, she requires skills in 4 additional areas to achieve her long-term goals: (1) proficiency in the statistical techniques of classification research beyond the taxometric method; (2) in-depth knowledge of the mood disorders; (3) understanding of variables beyond symptom data (i.e., neurobiological, personality, genetic) that are important for the classification of emotional disorders; and (4) experience with psychiatric epidemiology, the field traditionally enlisted to refine nosological systems. These gaps in knowledge will be addressed by: (1) didactic training in statistics, mood disorders, neurobiology, personality, and genetic epidemiology; (2) clinical training in emotional disorders and their comorbidity; (3) training in psychiatric epidemiology through research apprenticeships on two major surveys designed to inform revisions for ICD-11 and DSM-V; and (4) the conduct of a mentored research project. The research project will integrate the methods of structural and epidemiological research with the aims of (i) delineating the full latent structure of 6 commonly co-occurring mood and anxiety disorders in epidemiological samples, (ii) evaluating the epidemiological consequences of modifying diagnostic criteria and thresholds based on information about latent structure, and (iii) examining epidemiological correlates of pure and comorbid emotional disorders classified using information about their latent structure. This project is expected to inform the development of an R01 proposal to support further research into mood-anxiety comorbidity and to round out the candidate's ability to conduct productive, independent research in this area. The project is also expected to yield results with considerable relevance for public health, with the potential to lead to more valid and useful diagnostic assessments, better detection of individuals in need of services, and more effective prevention and treatment of emotional suffering. ? ? ?

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)
Type
Research Scientist Development Award - Research & Training (K01)
Project #
5K01MH076162-03
Application #
7469445
Study Section
Adult Psychopathology and Disorders of Aging Study Section (APDA)
Program Officer
Chavez, Mark
Project Start
2006-08-08
Project End
2011-07-31
Budget Start
2008-08-01
Budget End
2009-07-31
Support Year
3
Fiscal Year
2008
Total Cost
$186,256
Indirect Cost
Name
University of Pennsylvania
Department
Psychology
Type
Schools of Arts and Sciences
DUNS #
042250712
City
Philadelphia
State
PA
Country
United States
Zip Code
19104
Ruscio, Ayelet Meron; Gentes, Emily L; Jones, Jason D et al. (2015) Rumination predicts heightened responding to stressful life events in major depressive disorder and generalized anxiety disorder. J Abnorm Psychol 124:17-26
Ruscio, Ayelet Meron; Seitchik, Allison E; Gentes, Emily L et al. (2011) Perseverative thought: a robust predictor of response to emotional challenge in generalized anxiety disorder and major depressive disorder. Behav Res Ther 49:867-74
Ruscio, John; Ruscio, Ayelet Meron; Carney, Lauren M (2011) Performing Taxometric Analysis to Distinguish Categorical and Dimensional Variables. J Exp Psychopathol 2:170-196
Crome, Erica; Baillie, Andrew; Slade, Tim et al. (2010) Social phobia: further evidence of dimensional structure. Aust N Z J Psychiatry 44:1012-20
Kessler, Ronald C; Ruscio, Ayelet Meron; Shear, Katherine et al. (2010) Epidemiology of anxiety disorders. Curr Top Behav Neurosci 2:21-35
Ruscio, A M; Stein, D J; Chiu, W T et al. (2010) The epidemiology of obsessive-compulsive disorder in the National Comorbidity Survey Replication. Mol Psychiatry 15:53-63
Ruscio, Ayelet Meron (2010) The latent structure of social anxiety disorder: consequences of shifting to a dimensional diagnosis. J Abnorm Psychol 119:662-71
Ruscio, Ayelet Meron (2009) Integrating structural and epidemiological research to inform the classification of psychopathology. Int J Methods Psychiatr Res 18:240-50
Ruscio, John; Brown, Timothy A; Meron Ruscio, Ayelet (2009) A taxometric investigation of DSM-IV major depression in a large outpatient sample: interpretable structural results depend on the mode of assessment. Assessment 16:127-44
Ruscio, A M; Brown, T A; Chiu, W T et al. (2008) Social fears and social phobia in the USA: results from the National Comorbidity Survey Replication. Psychol Med 38:15-28

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