The future of psychiatry: clinical practice, diagnosis, and treatment

Abstract

This paper overviews the future of clinical practice in psychiatry, covering diagnosis, treatment, and public health. We consider recent advances and new controversies as psychiatry moves from a categorical to a dimensional approach to diagnosing and classifying mental illness; as well as the potential pitfalls of overdiagnosis, underdiagnosis, and misdiagnosis. We also review some of the most exciting new developments in treatment modalities, such as psychedelic treatments, ketamine, and new antipsychotics. The potential of interventional psychiatry using technology, and review techniques including neuromodulation, neurofeedback, brain-computer interfaces, AI-assisted psychotherapy, and virtual reality is also discussed in the context of future of public mental health strategy, including the important issue of online disinformation and how it can influence the public's understanding of mental health. Finally, we consider the evolving understanding of addiction, particularly behavioural and technological addictions. We conclude with a brief discussion of how best to influence the political leadership in using these new advances to develop evidence-based, scientifically-informed healthcare policy.

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