TRANSDIAGNOSTIC PROCESSES OF COGNITIVE VULNERABILITIES IN EMOTIONAL PSYCHOLOGICAL CONDITIONS

Abstract

Introduction: Recent literature has expounded the presence of transdiagnostic cognitive processes and a shared latent internalising factor in emotional psychological conditions, exerting significant bearing on the proposed shift from categorical diagnostic nosology to transdiagnostic perspectives. To date, there is no published scale assessing such transdiagnostic cognitive processes. The present study sought to assess these processes and the posited latent internalising factor through the novel Transdiagnostic Processes for Emotional Symptoms Scale (TPESS). Methods: TPESS, gold-standard symptom measures for major depressive disorder, generalised anxiety disorder, bipolar disorder, panic disorder, agoraphobia, obsessive-compulsive disorder and social anxiety disorder, and the Mini International Neuropsychiatric Interview (M.I.N.I.) were administered at timepoint 1 (T1) and 6 months later (timepoint 2; T2). Structured equation modelling (SEM) investigated the factor structure of TPESS while SEM and logistic regressions studied associations of the transdiagnostic core with an internalising factor derived from symptom measures. Results: Findings from 506 Singaporean university students demonstrated the presence of a transdiagnostic core (?2 = 249.777, df = 33, p < .001) which significantly and positively predicted a T2 latent internalising factor (? = .55, p < .001; ?2 = 350.713, df = 101, p < .001) when T1 internalising factor was not controlled for. The transdiagnostic core also predicted most individual diagnoses at T2. Conclusion: TPESS is a reliable measure of transdiagnostic cognitive vulnerabilities and a transdiagnostic core shared by emotional psychological conditions, which further predicts stable internalising dimensions and diagnoses of emotional psychological conditions.