Patricia B. Scott Considers Potential of Personalized Psychiatric Care
Online, August 8, 2012 (Newswire.com) - According to a recent report from The Huffington Post, personalized medicine may be a more forward-thinking approach to psychiatric diagnosis. Next year's meeting of The International College of Neuropsychopharmacology (CINP) will present an opportunity for some of the smartest minds to create out-of-the-box concepts for psychiatric diagnosis. Many psychiatrists and other medical professionals see this as a sign of hope for psychiatric diagnoses since the progress has otherwise been fairly slow. The report and the ensuing debate have won the attention of psychiatrist Patricia B. Scott, M.D.
According to Dr. Scott, "We already have 'personalized psychiatric care' and it is done by taking a careful history of the patient's symptoms, a family psychiatric history, a medical history and sometimes interviewing relatives and looking at previous psychiatric records. Being thorough, not missing any steps and taking time is likely to lead to an accurate psychiatric diagnosis.
"Although major psychiatric disorders such as bipolar disorder and severe obsessive-compulsive disorders are certainly diseases of the brain, I do not see that we will have a diagnostic brain scan or blood test in the foreseeable future. But a careful clinical psychiatric assessment can be very accurate. It is important to realize that scans and blood tests are not infallible and can lead to false diagnoses."
Many medical professionals agree with the findings that psychiatric disorders develop from hundreds of different genotypes that can converge on the same phenotype. In addition, patient symptoms vary and are manifested in different ways. The CINP conference is meant to address these issues.
Former conference co-host Bob Belmaker states that, "Personalized medicine is a new frontier of research to determine the best treatment for specific patients. CINP is organizing the first meeting on personalized medicine in psychiatry."
Researchers on board with personalized psychiatric diagnosis know that the path to see any real results will be slow and arduous and filled with many false findings. Discoveries will need to be handled cautiously and with extreme skepticism during the early stages of development.
Cases where personalized medicine will work best are in situations with a combination of classic and severe symptoms, early onset and in patients with a family history of the disease. Many other healthcare providers, however, echo the ideas of Patricia B. Scott M.D. in noting the importance of differentiating between patients and offering thorough and accurate diagnoses.
ABOUT:
Patricia B. Scott, M.D. is a healthcare provider focused in psychiatric care and neuropsychiatry. She currently runs her own private practice in California. Dr. Scott is a former professor at the University of California.