Psychiatry: Then and Now

Following a speech by United States Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer, who spoke at the American Psychiatric Association Annual Meeting, Dr Tasman reflects on the process of arriving at decisions under the law and how those decisions are made within the confines of available evidence. Similar to the field of law, psychiatrists do their best every time they see a patient and they approach every patient with care and diligence.

Like the Supreme Court, the field of psychiatry is often the target of criticism, but our knowledge base and collective experience continues to improve. In both the judicial and the medical realms, decisions are made contextually. New research such as genetics, neuropsychiatry, and algorithms that gather patient data show promise in developing better and more precise treatments.

Erratum: The poet mentioned in this video is Robert Browning, not Robert Burns.