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Abstract:
Contemporary psychiatry faces major challenges. Its syndrome-based
disease classifi cation is not based on mechanisms and does not guide
treatment, which largely depends on trial and error. The development of
therapies is hindered by ignorance of potential beneficiary patient
subgroups. Neuroscientific and genetics research have yet to affect
disease definitions or contribute to clinical decision making. In this
challenging setting, what should psychiatric research focus on? In two
companion papers, we present a list of problems nominated by clinicians
and researchers from different disciplines as candidates for future
scientific investigation of mental disorders. These problems are loosely
grouped into challenges concerning nosology and diagnosis (this Personal
View) and problems related to pathogenesis and aetiology (in the
companion Personal View). Motivated by successful examples in other
disciplines, particularly the list of Hilbert's problems in mathematics,
this subjective and eclectic list of priority problems is intended for
psychiatric researchers, helping to re-focus existing research and
providing perspectives for future psychiatric science.
