Reimagining Mental Health Diagnosis

Early in his career as a psychiatrist, a young woman told Dr. Keshavan his diagnosis of her mental disorder was no more than simply relabeling in technical terms what she had already told him. Mental disorders are currently defined by collections of symptoms and behaviors. In recent years, researchers including Dr. Keshavan are beginning to realize that that re-categorizing mental illness using brain-based biomarkers and machine learning can be a much better way to diagnose treat, and predict the outcomes of these illnesses.