Toward Early, Personalized, Rational Polypharmacy In Psychiatry: A Tri‐Dimensional Approach

Abstract

Psychiatry is a complex field of medicine in which a growing understanding of the underlying disease biology is not fully integrated into clinical practice.Diagnosis is based on subjective personal history and clinical criteria. The latter are chosen through a consensus process by committees of experts in the field, and encoded in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) and its international homologue, the International Classification of Diseases. These criteria are re-evaluated and updated periodically, on average every two decades, although the pace is likely to accelerate. The lack of objective diagnostic tests and empirical data-based approaches to psychiatric classification are possible reasons for the relative lack of reproducibility in psychiatric clinical trials. After participating in this activity, the psychiatrist should be better able to: