IHR Podcast #1: Precision Psychiatry

In this –the inaugural episode of the Integral Health Resources Podcast– I flounder about trying to figure out what on earth I’m doing. Topics include: “Precision psychiatry” NIMH Director Thomas Insel Integral/Biopsychosocial models of health Summary: In the May issue of Science, Dr. Thomas Insel (Director of the National Institute of Mental Health) makes his …

Continue reading "IHR Podcast #1: Precision Psychiatry"

In this –the inaugural episode of the Integral Health Resources Podcast– I flounder about trying to figure out what on earth I’m doing. Topics include:

“Precision psychiatry”
NIMH Director Thomas Insel
Integral/Biopsychosocial models of health

http://www.integralhealthresources.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/IHRPC1.m4a

Summary:

In the May issue of Science, Dr. Thomas Insel (Director of the National Institute of Mental Health) makes his case that so-called “mental disorders” should be re-conceived as “brain circuit disorders,” and that by focusing ever more on neuroscience we will finally get to a place where the practice of psychiatry makes a lick of sense. I agree with Allen Frances (who was chair of the DSM-IV task force) that Insel’s conclusions here are “ridiculously premature,” but, more than that, I think that his “precision medicine for psychiatry” project is a step “precisely” in the wrong direction.

I blogged about Insel’s new agenda for psychiatry a couple of years ago, HERE.

Here are some other media resources that may be helpful/relevant to this discussion:

The Problem and Promise of Precision Medicine (Video)
The NIMH Research Domain Criteria (RDoC) Project: Precision Medicine for Psychiatry (Thomas Insel article in the American Journal of Psychiatry)