Transdiagnostic Psychopharmacology: Bridging Mechanisms Across Mental Disorders
A special issue of Future Pharmacology (ISSN 2673-9879).
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 August 2026 | Viewed by 16514
Special Issue Editor
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
We are pleased to invite you to contribute to this Special Issue on Transdiagnostic Psychopharmacology: Bridging Mechanisms Across Mental Disorders, an area of growing relevance at the intersection of clinical neuroscience, psychopharmacology, and psychiatric nosology. Traditional diagnostic frameworks such as the DSM and ICD have guided the classification of mental disorders and the indication of psychotropic medications. However, accumulating evidence from genetics, neurobiology, and translational research suggests that many psychiatric symptoms and underlying mechanisms transcend these categorical boundaries.
Medications originally developed for one disorder frequently demonstrate efficacy across multiple conditions—such as antipsychotics, which can be used to treat mood disorders, and antidepressants, which are often also used to treat anxiety disorders—highlighting the limitations of diagnosis-specific prescribing. This Special Issue aims to consolidate research that supports a symptom- and mechanism-based approach to psychopharmacological treatment. It reflects a paradigm shift toward personalized psychiatry, grounded in shared neurobiological substrates, and aligned with dimensional models such as the Research Domain Criteria (RDoC).
We aim to gather cutting-edge research and theoretical contributions on transdiagnostic psychopharmacology, emphasizing pharmacological strategies that target core domains of psychopathology—such as affect regulation, cognitive control, reward processing, and stress reactivity—across traditional diagnostic categories. The issue aligns with the journal’s scope by integrating neurobiological insights with clinical applications, advancing the development of mechanism-based, individualized treatments.
By focusing on shared dimensions of mental disorders and exploring pharmacological interventions that span diagnostic classifications, this Special Issue supports the journal’s mission to disseminate innovative and interdisciplinary research in psychiatric science and neuropsychopharmacology. The goal is to encourage submissions that contribute to refining clinical practice and developing new frameworks for drug development, repurposing, and biomarker-driven interventions.
Original research articles and reviews are welcome. Potential topics may include (but are not limited to) the following:
- Neurobiological and genetic mechanisms underlying shared psychopathology across diagnostic boundaries.
- Pharmacological modulation of dimensional constructs (e.g., anhedonia, impulsivity, affective instability).
- Mechanism-based prescribing strategies and clinical trial designs.
- Transdiagnostic applications of existing psychotropics (e.g., antidepressants, antipsychotics, mood stabilizers).
- Drug repurposing based on transcriptomic or neuroimaging findings.
- Translational models aligning with RDoC or other dimensional diagnostic systems.
- Clinical studies addressing polypharmacy in comorbid or mixed presentations.
- Conceptual or critical reviews that address the limitations of traditional diagnostic systems in psychopharmacology.
- Integrative approaches combining pharmacology with digital phenotyping, biomarkers, or AI-based prediction models.
We look forward to receiving your contributions.
Prof. Dr. Felix Kessler
Guest Editor
Manuscript Submission Information
Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.
Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Future Pharmacology is an international peer-reviewed open access quarterly journal published by MDPI.
Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1200 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.
Keywords
- transdiagnostic
- psychopharmacology
- psychiatry
- treatment
- neurobiological
- pharmacotherapy
- pharmacogenomics
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