Integrating Psychiatry and Medical Biotechnology as a Way to Achieve Scientific, Precision, and Personalized Psychiatry

Abstract

Besides concerns about the increasing prevalence of psychiatric disorders and the significant burdens and costs, there are concerns about its validity. The dilemma of validity went so far that studies described the diagnoses in psychiatry as scientifically worthless. We suggest integrating psychiatry and medical biotechnology and using biotechnological products in psychiatric aspects help psychiatry become more precise, strengthen its position among other sciences, and increase its scientific credibility by giving examples. For this matter, we need different inputs to choose between the vast outputs. The most common inputs are clinical symptoms, cognitive function, individual and environmental risk factors, molecular markers, genetic markers, neuroimaging signs, and big data. Some molecular markers have been shown to have a relationship with psychiatric disorders such as Interleukin-6 (IL-6) and Tumor Necrosis Factor-α (TNF-α). Genetic studies might evolve the most accurate part of precision psychiatry. Currently, and through the developments in technology, genome-wide association studies have become available. In neuroimaging signs, psychiatric disorders are associated with generalized rather than focal brain network dysfunction, and functional magnetic resonance imaging could be performed to study them. It would exhibit different aberrancies in various psychiatric disorders. In big data, the constitution of predictive models and movement toward precision psychiatry can be led by using artificial intelligence and machine learning.