This report examines Rejection Sensitive Dysphoria (RSD) against the broader construct of emotional dysregulation. The central conclusion is that RSD is best regarded, at present, as a clinically recognisable but weakly validated descriptive label rather than an established diagnostic entity. By contrast, emotional dysregulation is a well-supported, transdiagnostic dimension with substantial evidence across ADHD, borderline personality disorder (BPD), mood and anxiety disorders, and other conditions. In ADHD specifically, emotional dysregulation is common, impairing, and increasingly argued to be part of the disorder’s core psychopathology, even though it is still not part of DSM diagnostic criteria. Systematic reviews and meta-analyses support this broader claim far more strongly than they support RSD as a distinct construct. citeturn17search5turn17search2turn35search1turn5search12
A key analytical disti