Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Editorial
. 2022 Dec;19(6):351-354.
doi: 10.36131/cnfioritieditore20220601.

Biological Psychiatry is Dead, Long Live Biological Psychiatry!

Alfonso Troisi  1
Affiliations
Editorial

Biological Psychiatry is Dead, Long Live Biological Psychiatry!

Alfonso Troisi. Clin Neuropsychiatry. 2022 Dec.

Abstract

The failure of biological psychiatry to deliver on its promises of enlightening the origin of psychiatric disorders and optimizing their treatment is due to invalid theoretical postulates that derive from an outdated conceptualization of human biology. The crisis of biological psychiatry depends on its identification with functional biology. A major contribution of evolutionary biology (the other current of biological thought) is to integrate the study of environmental variables (developmental, interpersonal, and ecological) with those mechanisms that are the field of study of functional biology (genetics, anatomy, and physiology). A new theoretical framework based on the integration of functional and evolutionary explanations can revitalize the crippled field of biological psychiatry.

Keywords: biological psychiatry; biomedical model; brain disorders; concept of disease; evolutionary biology; functional biology; lesion.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Competing interests: None.

References

    1. Davies, W., & Roache, R. (2017). Reassessing biopsychosocial psychiatry. The British journal of psychiatry: the journal of mental science, 210(1), 3–5. 10.1192/bjp.bp.116.182873 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Engel G. L. (1980). The clinical application of the biopsychosocial model. The American journal of psychiatry, 137(5), 535–544. 10.1176/ajp.137.5.535 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Frances A. (2013). Saving normal: An insider’s revolt against out-of-control psychiatric diagnosis, DSM-5, Big Pharma, and the medicalization of ordinary life. HarperCollins Publishers, New York, NY.
    1. Goetz C. G. (2010). Chapter 15: Jean-Martin Charcot and the anatomo-clinical method of neurology. Handbook of clinical neurology, 95, 203–212. 10.1016/S0072-9752(08)02115-5 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Gutwinski, S., Löscher, A., Mahler, L., Kalbitzer, J., Heinz, A., & Bermpohl, F. (2011). Understanding left-handedness. Deutsches Arzteblatt international, 108(50), 849–853. 10.3238/arztebl.2011.0849 - DOI - PMC - PubMed

Publication types

LinkOut - more resources