Hitting the target: a new framework for mental health trials
No longer will it be sufficient to establish whether or not an intervention is effective. All trials, pharmacological and psychosocial, now need to identify a target or mediator, and to show how it is affected by the intervention. This change is a welcome progression from the Institute’s Research Domain Criteria programme to establish, for research purposes, new ways of classifying mental disorders based on dimensions of observable behaviour and neurobiological measures.