Impulsivity typically refers to rash action without forethought. It has a number of dimensions, including delayed discounting, attentional impulsivity, motor impulsivity, sensation seeking, and nonplanning impulsivity. In the neurocognitive domain, considerable work has focused on response inhibition. In general, impulsivity has been related to numerous psychiatric symptoms and has been shown to be elevated in many disorders.
Emotion had been explicitly decoupled from impulsivity in many of the most commonly used measures, such as the Barratt Impulsiveness Scale. In part, this was done in the interest of understanding impulsivity as a pure construct. However, in a meta-analysis of the most commonly used impulsivity scales (Whiteside and Lynam, 2001), urgency emerged as an important construct. This study led to the development of the Urgency, (Lack of) Premeditation, (Lack of) Persistence, and Sensation Seeking scale (UPPS). Urgency refers to rash action in the context of strong emotion or mood. It has been shown to have an important role in numerous psychiatric disorders, ranging from depression to schizophrenia to substance abuse (Berg, 2015; Pearlstein et al., 2023). More recent work has examined the consequences of elevated urgency for behavior.
Externalizing, internalizing, and psychotic symptoms have been identified as critical dimensions of psychiatric illness. More recently, it was proposed that a unitary “p” factor is superordinate to these dimensions (Caspi, 2014). Subsequently, Carver et al. (2017) proposed that impulsive responsivity to emotion (e.g., urgency) may underlie this p factor and thereby play a crucial role in understanding the structure of mental illness as well as suggesting avenues for evidence-based treatments. Moreover, urgency has been associated with the use of dysfunctional emotion regulation strategies (King et al., 2018). Thus, an understanding of urgency and its related circuitry will be of importance both conceptually and in terms of advancing evidence-based treatments.
Along with the conceptual development of urgency and its role in psychopathology has come the understanding of related circuitry. Thus, neuroimaging approaches have rapidly increased our knowledge regarding this circuitry. However, studies of both urgency and its underlying circuitry are in their infancy, but research in the field is rapidly developing. It is therefore timely to tie these threads together to better understand the role of urgency in the basis of psychiatric disorders and their structure.
In this Research Topic of Frontiers in Psychiatry, we compile articles by leaders in the field that comment on urgency, including its underlying physiological and neurocognitive mechanisms, as well as highly related emotion regulation constructs that play a key role in psychiatric disorders. These articles can include both reviews and regular papers. Because of the importance of urgency in psychiatric syndromes, it is important to consider multiple perspectives and approaches to understanding urgency itself and its ramifications for challenging behaviors (e.g., suicide, violence, substance abuse). In this way, we hope to integrate the field and offer strategies to improve treatment strategies to address these challenging behaviors.
Dr. Matthew Hoptman consults on NIH grants and with the Kessler Research Foundation.
Dr. Anthony Ahmed has received consultant fees from Minerva Neurosciences Inc.
Impulsivity typically refers to rash action without forethought. It has a number of dimensions, including delayed discounting, attentional impulsivity, motor impulsivity, sensation seeking, and nonplanning impulsivity. In the neurocognitive domain, considerable work has focused on response inhibition. In general, impulsivity has been related to numerous psychiatric symptoms and has been shown to be elevated in many disorders.
Emotion had been explicitly decoupled from impulsivity in many of the most commonly used measures, such as the Barratt Impulsiveness Scale. In part, this was done in the interest of understanding impulsivity as a pure construct. However, in a meta-analysis of the most commonly used impulsivity scales (Whiteside and Lynam, 2001), urgency emerged as an important construct. This study led to the development of the Urgency, (Lack of) Premeditation, (Lack of) Persistence, and Sensation Seeking scale (UPPS). Urgency refers to rash action in the context of strong emotion or mood. It has been shown to have an important role in numerous psychiatric disorders, ranging from depression to schizophrenia to substance abuse (Berg, 2015; Pearlstein et al., 2023). More recent work has examined the consequences of elevated urgency for behavior.
Externalizing, internalizing, and psychotic symptoms have been identified as critical dimensions of psychiatric illness. More recently, it was proposed that a unitary “p” factor is superordinate to these dimensions (Caspi, 2014). Subsequently, Carver et al. (2017) proposed that impulsive responsivity to emotion (e.g., urgency) may underlie this p factor and thereby play a crucial role in understanding the structure of mental illness as well as suggesting avenues for evidence-based treatments. Moreover, urgency has been associated with the use of dysfunctional emotion regulation strategies (King et al., 2018). Thus, an understanding of urgency and its related circuitry will be of importance both conceptually and in terms of advancing evidence-based treatments.
Along with the conceptual development of urgency and its role in psychopathology has come the understanding of related circuitry. Thus, neuroimaging approaches have rapidly increased our knowledge regarding this circuitry. However, studies of both urgency and its underlying circuitry are in their infancy, but research in the field is rapidly developing. It is therefore timely to tie these threads together to better understand the role of urgency in the basis of psychiatric disorders and their structure.
In this Research Topic of Frontiers in Psychiatry, we compile articles by leaders in the field that comment on urgency, including its underlying physiological and neurocognitive mechanisms, as well as highly related emotion regulation constructs that play a key role in psychiatric disorders. These articles can include both reviews and regular papers. Because of the importance of urgency in psychiatric syndromes, it is important to consider multiple perspectives and approaches to understanding urgency itself and its ramifications for challenging behaviors (e.g., suicide, violence, substance abuse). In this way, we hope to integrate the field and offer strategies to improve treatment strategies to address these challenging behaviors.
Dr. Matthew Hoptman consults on NIH grants and with the Kessler Research Foundation.
Dr. Anthony Ahmed has received consultant fees from Minerva Neurosciences Inc.
