Still no causal classification of mental disorders

A patient with a paralysis is referred to an oncologist if the condition is caused by a cancer metastasis in the spinal cord; a treatment by a neurologist is a secondary consideration. Likewise, renal insufficiency is sometimes caused by heart problems, and the treatment is thus led by a cardiologist. In psychiatry, however, grouping mental disorders by their cause is still an unsolved problem. Psychiatric textbooks and manuals cluster disorders by symptoms, which is thought to impede the search for effective treatments. This has been compared to an ornithologist's field guide: It allows you…

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Source: Unsolved problems in medicine (CC BY-SA 4.0)