An integrative approach to psychiatric diagnosis and research

Abstract

Much attention has been paid to revisions of psychiatric classification systems. Nevertheless, there remains significant dissatisfaction with the nosology. From a neuroscience perspective, diagnostic criteria have failed to incorporate neurobiological data, and a focus on “circuit-based behavioral dimensions” (1) will improve diagnosis. From a more critical perspective, given that psychiatric disorders do not represent valid disease entities (1), diagnosis merely medicalizes problems in living. These specific debates echo larger debates about classification in medicine, in which many emphasize notions of disease, arguing that clinicians must 51 be scientists who understand physiology, while others emphasize the experience of illness, stating that clinicians must be humanists who understand suffering (2). An integrative medicine and psychiatry arguably recognizes each of these aspects of being a good diagnostician and researcher (3,4).