Closing the gap between research and practice

Clinical psychiatry involves making difficult decisions about diagnosis, therapy and prognosis, and often the authors are uncomfortably aware that they are making a choice without being sure there is convincing evidence to justify it.

Abstract

Has Mrs A got schizophrenia? Would Mr B do better with a tricyclic or a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor? Is Miss C likely to be recovered in six months time? Is St John's wort an effective antidepressant? Clinical psychiatry involves making difficult decisions about diagnosis, therapy and prognosis. Sometimes we may be entirely confident about our decisions, but often we are uncomfortably aware that we are making a choice without being sure there is convincing evidence to justify it. Maybe we don't know or have forgotten what the evidence is, or perhaps there isn't any.