Neuroscience Seen as Yielding Little Benefit for Patients
February 25, 2022
Research on the genetic underpinnings of mental diseases has yet to yield much therapeutic benefit for patients, a former leader of the United States’ premier mental health research institution tells the New York Times. This view aligns with observations in Issues by Jonathan Leo. As neuroscience has implicated more and more genes in mental disorders, he writes, “the importance of each individual gene decreases … and it becomes hard to see how this information can be used in a clinical setting.” The psychiatry community, Leo adds, should “rethink how it treats patients, how it allocates research money, and its emphasis on the biological treatments of psychological conditions.”