Advantages And Disadvantages Of Subtyping

Subtyping is a way in which something can be categorized into different groups, or subgroups, to reach a better and more precise understanding of something. In other words, “subtyping is more homogeneous than OCD in general” (Radomsky & Taylor, 2005, p. 371). Subtyping is used in many mental disorders, for example: delusional disorder, hyperactivity disorder, and posttraumatic stress disorder all have subtypes. In this paper, OCD will be looked at on whether or not it would be an advantage to form different subtypes for it. People unaware of the vast differences in symptoms, and ways in which OCD can affect someone may think that the different subtyping of OCD is unnecessary. Although, many researchers who do acquire the knowledge of the symptoms would also agree that subtyping should not be used. These researchers believe that OCD …show more content…
375). In other words, some cases of a certain OCD subtype relate to a different subtype that is equally, and in some cases more relevant, to another disorder. If these situations begin to arise quite frequently it could potentially bring people to question the diagnostic integrity of obsessive-compulsive problems. This dilemma is making researchers question whether or not subtyping would be a beneficial tool to use. “A fruitful, robust subtype system should be able to account for all pertinent data, including clinical features, family history, laboratory findings, and patterns of treatment response” (p. 373). Sometimes only two or three of those domains are looked at by subtyping researchers because there are many different ways in which a category of a subtype can be defined, making it difficult to guarantee a completely valid