title: The impact of psychopharmacology on contemporary clinical psychiatry.
abstract: Clinical psychiatric evaluations of patients have changed dramatically in recent decades. Both initial assessments and follow-up visits have become brief and superficial, focused on searching for categorical diagnostic criteria from checklists, with limited inquiry into patient-reported symptomatic status and tolerability of treatments. The virtually exclusive therapeutic task has become selecting a plausible psychotropic, usually based on expert consensus guidelines. These guidelines and practice patterns rest mainly on published monotherapy trials that may or may not be applicable to particular patients but are having a profound impact, not only on modern psychiatric practice but also on psychiatric education, research, and theory.
authors.affiliation: Professor and Director, Department of Neuroscience, University of Palermo, Buenos Aires, Argentina.
authors.forename: Gustavo H
authors.initials: GH
authors.lastname: Vázquez
mesh_terms: D002170:Canada; D057189:Checklist / Q000639:trends; D002983:Clinical Competence; D005544:Forecasting; D019983:Guideline Adherence / Q000639:trends; D006801:Humans; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000523:psychology; D010818:Practice Patterns, Physicians' / Q000639:trends; D011570:Psychiatry / Q000639:trends*; D011600:Psychopharmacology / Q000639:trends*; D011619:Psychotropic Drugs / Q000009:adverse effects / Q000627:therapeutic use; D011785:Quality Assurance, Health Care / Q000639:trends*; D016032:Randomized Controlled Trials as Topic / Q000639:trends; D016896:Treatment Outcome
chemical_list: D011619:Psychotropic Drugs