‘Precision psychiatry’ needs to become part of ‘personalized psychiatry’

Abstract

Abstract‘Precision medicine’ is defined as ‘an emerging approach for treatment and prevention that takes into account each person’s variability in genes, environment, and lifestyle’. Sometimes the term ‘personalized medicine’ is also used, either as a synonym or in a broader sense. In psychiatry, the term ‘personalized’ applies to different levels of health-care provision, such as the service organization and the choice of treatment plans based on the characterization of the individual patient. This approach is already feasible but, currently, it is often hampered by the shortage of human and financial resources. Recently, the terminology of ‘precision medicine’ has been extended to psychiatry: the term ‘precision psychiatry’ refers to the full exploitation of recent scientific and technological advances to achieve a close match between individual biosignature and prevention / treatment strategies. This article provides an overview of recent advances in neuroimaging, multi-omics and computational neuroscience, which have contributed to foster our understanding of the neurobiology of major mental disorders, and led to the implementation of a precision medicine-oriented approach in psychiatry.We argue that, while ‘precision psychiatry’ represents an important step to further advance the effectiveness of the ‘personalized psychiatry’, the distinction between the two terms is important to avoid dangerous neglect of the current potential of personalized care in psychiatry and to underscore the need for disseminating good existing practices aimed at organizing mental health services and providing care according to person’s psychopathological characteristics, illness trajectory, needs, environment and preferences.In conclusion, ‘precision psychiatry’ will contribute to advance ‘personalized psychiatry’, but for the time being keeping the distinction between the two terms will contribute to fully exploit the current potential of personalized care.