Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-jkksz Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-17T20:05:32.109Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Prospects for a scientific psychiatry

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 September 2015

F.K. Goodwin  and
S.N. Ghaemi
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Herman van Praag has made major contributions to the scientific and conceptual development of psychiatry. Despite progress in delineating reliable diagnostic criteria, our classification system ignores clinical insights available from patients' subjective experiences of illness. Hence a ‘coarsening of diagnosis’ has occurred, weakening the nosologic infrastructure of scientific psychiatry. This paper will discuss these ideas and emphasize the central role of psychopharmacology in advancing psychiatry, with lithium's discovery as a paradigm.

Keywords

Sciencepsychiatrymethodologynosologybipolar disorderlithiumpsychopharmacologyhistorymanic depressive illness
Type
Research Article
Information
Acta Neuropsychiatrica , Volume 9 , Issue 2 , June 1997 , pp. 49 - 51
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1997

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Literature

1.Van Praag, HM. ‘Make-believes’ in Psychiatry: or the Perils of Progress. New York: Brunner/Mazel, 1993.Google ScholarPubMed
2.Pichot, P. A Century of Psychiatry. Paris: Editions Roger Dacosta, 1983.Google Scholar
3.Ghaemi, SN, Sachs, GS, Chiou, AM, et al.Differential diagnosis of bipolar disorder and the use of antidepressants: Is bipolar disorder underdiagnosed?Are antidepressants overutilized? San Juan, Puerto Rico: Am Coll Neuropsychopharmacol, 1996:abstract.Google Scholar
4.Sullivan, HS. The psychiatric interview. New York: Norton, 1954.Google Scholar
5.Havens, L. Making Contact: Uses of Language in Psychotherapy. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Univ Press, 1986.Google Scholar
6.Anthony, JC, Folstein, M, Romanoski, AJ. Comparison of lay DIS and a standardized psychiatric diagnosis. Arch gen Psychiat 1985;42: 667–75.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
7.Regier, DA, Kaelber, CT. The epidemiologic catchment area (ECA) program: studying the prevalence and incidence of psychopathology. In: Tsuang, MT, Tohen, M, Zahner, GEP, eds. Textbook in psychiatric Epidemiology. New York: John Wiley, 1995:135–56.Google Scholar
8.Kessler, RC, McGonagle, KA, Zhao, S. Lifetime and 12-month prevalence of DSM-III-R psychiatric disorders in the United States. Arch gen Psychiat 1994;51:8–19.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
9.Kendler, KS, Gallagher, TJ, Abelson, JM, Kessler, RC. Lifetime prevalence, demographic risk factors and diagnostic validity of nonaffective psychosis as assessed in a US community sample: the national comorbidity survey. Arch gen Psychiat 1996;53:1022–31.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
10.Johnson, FN. The History of Lithium Therapy. London: Macmillan, 1984.CrossRefGoogle Scholar