Motor Abnormalities and the Hierarchical Taxonomy of Psychopathology: Incorporating a Psychomotor Perspective Into a...

Motor symptoms have emerged as a promising target for understanding mechanisms, prognosis, and treatment in psychology. Although motor abnormalities are observed across mental health conditions, transdiagnostic research has been limited. It is not well understood whether motor symptoms are a broad endophenotypic marker or a predictor of specific symptoms. We leverage a hierarchical dimensional symptom structure to examine transdiagnostic relationships between psychological and self-reported motor symptoms in 3,460 participants in the Multi-Site Assessment of Psychosis-Risk study. Overall motor problems (β=0.07-0.25), dyskinesia (β=0.07-0.31), and coordination (β=0.05-0.23) were related positively at different strengths to all symptom domains. Amount of physical activity was positively related to mania and substance use (β=0.08-0.09) and negatively related to detachment, fear, and distress (β=0.05-0.27). These results suggest that motor domains may provide utility as both a general endophenotypic marker and more specific predictor of serious mental illness, with implications for research and clinical settings.