Diagnoses, Dimensions, DSM-V, and Transdiagnostic Approaches: Time to Get Radical
David H. Barlow, Center for Anxiety and Related Disorders, Boston University
To address issues of comorbidity, subthreshold presentations, and the large number of NOS
diagnoses, DSM-V will likely organize groups of disorders, including emotional disorders, along
dimensions. A scheme will be presented that collapses current DSM-IV emotional disorders into
empirically supported common dimensions shared by all disorders, including temperaments,
mood, current disorder constructs or “key features,” and extent and types of avoidance. This
approach integrates fully with new transdiagnostic unified treatment approaches applied to a
variety of emotional disorders by targeting their shared features.
David H. Barlow is Professor of Psychology and Psychiatry and Founder and Director Emeritus
of the Center for Anxiety and Related Disorders at Boston University. He received his Ph.D. from
the University of Vermont in 1969 and has published over 500 articles and chapters and over 60
books, mostly in the area of the nature and treatment of emotional disorders. He is the recipient of
numerous awards, including the Distinguished Scientific Award for Applications of Psychology
from the American Psychological Association, and the 2008 Career/Lifetime Achievement
Award from the Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies.
Recommended readings: Allen, L. B., McHugh, R. K., & Barlow, D. H. (2008). Emotional
disorders: A unified protocol. In D. H. Barlow (Ed.), Clinical handbook of psychological
disorders (4th ed,. pp. 216-249). • New York: Guilford Press. Barlow, D. H. (2002).
Anxiety and its disorders: The nature and treatment of anxiety and panic (2nd ed.). New
York: Guilford Press. • Campbell-Sills, L., & Barlow, D. H. (2007). Incorporating
emotion regulation into conceptualizations and treatments of anxiety and mood disorders.
In J. J. Gross (Ed.), Handbook of emotion regulation (pp. 542-560). New York: Guilford
Press. • Suárez, L., Bennett, S., Goldstein, C., & Barlow, D.H. (2009). Understanding
anxiety disorders from a triple vulnerabilities framework. In M. M. Antony & M. B. Stein
(Eds.), Oxford handbook of anxiety and related disorders (pp. 153-172). New York:
Oxford University Press.