Decision Support for Mental Health: Towards the Information-based Psychiatry

Abstract

Decision support systems represent an important tool offering assistance with the decision making process in a variety of applications. This paper starts with recalling the basic principles and structure of decision support systems in medicine from a general perspective. Their effect in terms of both potential and limitations for finding the diagnosis, prognosis and therapy are overviewed from the points of view of health care effectiveness and patient safety. The authors are particularly interested in the specialty field of psychiatry. They discuss its specific challenges and analyze the slower penetration of telemedicine tools to psychiatry compared to other clinical fields. Finally, they claim that the development of decision support systems play a key role in the development of the concept of information-based medicine in general as well as to the particular context of information-based psychiatry.