Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-j824f Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-17T01:25:58.276Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Future of Biological Psychiatry

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 November 2014

H. M. Van Praag
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Progress in biological psychiatry is contingent upon progress in neurobiology and progress in research of proper characterization and assessment of abnormal behavior. Advances in neurobiology are rapid and steady; however, advances are few and far between in psychopathology. In many ways, developments over the past two decades run counter to what I believe to be diagnostic pre-requisites for fruitful biological research in psychiatry. I presume this to be a major reason why thus far biology has made no significant contributions to the diagnoses of mental disorders.

For progress to occur in biological psychiatry, the traditional diagnostic philosophies and attitudes must be reevaluated and alternative diagnostic approaches put into practice. This and the diagnostic method of functional psychopathology are reviewed in this article, with a focus on how the functional psychopathological approach could contribute to the advancement of the diagnostic process in psychiatry, and the opportunities it provides for biological psychiatric research.

Type
Feature Article
Information
CNS Spectrums , Volume 2 , Issue 9: Reflections on the Future of Neuroscience , October 1997 , pp. 18 - 25
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

1.Pichot, P. Nosological models in psychiatry. Br J Psychiatry. 1994;164:232–240.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
2.Van Praag, HM. Make Believes in Psychiatry or The Perils of Progress. New York, NY: Brunner Mazel; 1992.Google Scholar
3.Tsuang, MT, Lyons, MJ, Faraone, SV. Heterogeneity of schizophrenia: conceptual models and analytic strategies. Br J Psychiatry. 1990;156:17–26.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
4.Wolkowitz, OM, Bartko, JJ, Pickar, D. Drug trials and heterogeneity in schizophrenia: the mean is not the end. Biol Psychiatry. 1990;28:1021–1025.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
5.Lindenmayer, JP, Bernstein-Hyman, R, Grochowski, S. Five-factor model of schizophrenia. J Nerv Ment Dis. 1994;182:631–638.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
6.Strakowski, SM. Diagnostic validity of schizophreniform disorder. Am J Psychiatry. 1994;151:815–824.Google ScholarPubMed
7.Roy, MA, Crowe, RR. Validity of the familial sporadic subtypes of schizophrenia. Am J Psychiatry. 1994;151:805–814.Google ScholarPubMed
8.Ram, R, Bromet, EJ, Eaton, WW, Pato, C, Schwartz, JE. The natural course of schizophrenia: a review of first-admission studies. Schizophr Bull. 1992;18:185–207.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
9.Van Praag, HM, Uleman, AM, Spitz, JC. The vital syndrome interview. A structured standard interview for the recognition and registration of the vital depression symptom complex. Psychiatr Neurol Neurochir. 1965;68:329–346.Google ScholarPubMed
10.Van Praag, HM. Comorbidity (psycho) analysed. Brit J Psychiatry. 1996;30(suppl): 129–134.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
11.Rickels, K, Downing, R, Schweitzer, E, Hassman, H. Antidepressants for the treatment of generalized anxiety disorder. Arch Gen Psychiatry. 1993;50:884–895.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
12.Den Boer, JA, Sitsen, JMA, eds. Handbook of Depression and Anxiety. New York, NY: Marcel Dekker; 1994.Google Scholar
13.Den Boer, JA, Van Vliet, IM, Westenberg, HGM. Recent advances in the psychopharmacology of social phobia. Prog Neuropsychopharmacol Biol Psychiatry. 1994;18:625–645.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
14.Pecknold, JC. Serotonin 5-HT1A agonists. CNS Drugs. 1994;2:234–251.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
15.Jefferson, JW, Greist, JH. Lithium in psychiatry. CNS Drugs. 1994;1:448–464.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
16.Van Praag, HM, Leijnse, B. Neubewertung des syndroms. skizze einer funktonellen pathologie. Psychiatr Neurol Neurochir. 1965;68:50–66.Google Scholar
17.Van Praag, HM, Korf, J, Lakke, JPWF, Schut, T. Dopamine metabolism in depression, psychoses and Parkinson's disease: the problem of the specificity of biological variables in behaviour disorders. Psychol Med. 1975;5:138–146.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
18.Van Praag, HM, Kahn, R, Asnis, GM, et al.Denosologization of biological psychiatry or the specifity of 5-HT disturbances in psychiatric disorders. J Affect Disord. 1987;13:1–8.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
19.Van Praag, HM. Two-tier diagnosing in psychiatry. Psychiatry Res. 1990;34:1–11.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
20.Van Praag, HM, Korf, J, Puite, J. 5-Hydroxindoleacetic acid levels in the cerebrospinal fluid of depressive patients treated with probenecid. Nature. 1970;225:1259–1260.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
21.Van Praag, HM. Depression, suicide and the metabolism of serotonin in the brain. J Affect Disord. 1982;4:275–290.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
22.Van Praag, HM. Serotonergic mechanisms and suicidal behavior. Psychiatry Psychobiol. 1988;3:335–346.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
23.Asberg, M, Traskman, L, Thoren, P. 5-HIAA in the cerebrospinal fluid: a biochemical suicide predictor? Arch Gen Psychiatry. 1976;33:1193–1197.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
24.Coccaro, EF, Siever, LJ, Klar, H, et al.Serotonerigic studies in affective and personality disorder patients: correlates with suicidal and impulsive aggressive behavior. Arch Gen Psychiatry. 1989;46:587–599.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
25.Asberg, M, Bertilsson, L, Martensson, B, Scalia-Tomba, GP, Thoren, P, Traskman, L. CSF monoamine metabolites in melancholia. Acta Psychiatr Scand. 1984;69:201–219.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
26.Kahn, RS, Van Praag, HM. A serotonin hypothesis of panic disorder. Hum Psychopharmacol. 1988;3:285–288.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
27.Virkkunen, M, Rawlings, R, Tokola, R, et al.CSF biochemistries, glucose metabolism, and diurnal activity rhythms in alcoholics, violent offenders, fire setters, and healthy volunteers. Arch Gen Psychiatry. 1994;51:20–27.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
28.Van Praag, HM. Catecholamine precursor research in depression: the practical and scientific yield. In: Richardson, MA, ed. Amino Acids in Psychiatric Disease. Washington, DC: American Psychiatric Press; 1990:77–97.Google Scholar
29.Van Praag, HM, Asnis, GM, Kahn, RS, et al.Monoamines and abnormal behavior: a multi-aminergic perspective. Br J Psychiatry. 1990;157:723–734.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
30.Van Praag, HM, Kahn, R, Asnis, GM, Lemus, CZ, Brown, SL. Therapeutic indications for serotonin potentiating compounds. Biol Psychiatry. 1987;22:205–212.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
31.Van Praag, HM. About the centrality of mood lowering in mood disorders. Eur Neuropsychopharmacol. 1992;2:393–402.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
32.Van Praag, HM. Serotonin-related, anxiety/aggression-driven, stressor-precipitated depression: a psychobiological hypothesis. Eur Psychiatry. 1996;11:57–67.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
33.Meyer, A. Psychobiology: A Science of Man. Springfield, Ill: Charles C Thomas; 1957.Google Scholar
34.Van Praag, HM. Concerns about depression. Eur Psychiatry. 1995;10:269–275.CrossRefGoogle Scholar