A briefing from Embracing Complexity and Emerging Minds explains the importance of transdiagnostic approaches to mental health and neurodevelopmental conditions.

The Embracing Complexity Special Interest Research Group and the Language and Communication Special Interest Research Group, funded by Emerging Minds, have published a joint briefing on transdiagnostic approaches to researching mental health and neurodevelopmental differences.

Currently, clinical services and research into mental health and neurodevelopmental differences are predominantly organised around a set of separate diagnostic categories.

However, this structure does not reflect the fact that meeting criteria for multiple diagnoses is more common than a single diagnosis.

Opportunities provided by transdiagnostic approaches to research: A transdiagnostic approach seeks to look beyond and across diagnostic categories. It enables studies that more accurately reflect the complexity of these co-occurring and overlapping neurotypes.