The feats of precision psychiatry

April 20, 2025

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By Editor THE 20.04.2025 at 2:00 p.m. Reading 9 min. Subscribers

New research programs on depression and schizophrenia, in particular, aim to establish a diagnosis based on objective and measurable knowledge, and no longer simply on the observation of subjective manifestations. These advances are made possible by progress in brain imaging and molecular biology.

fMRI

According to researchers at Stanford University (USA), there are at least six subtypes of depression, involving distinct neural circuits highlighted by functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI).

LIPO CHING

This article is taken from the monthly Sciences et Avenir n°938, dated April 2025.

The days when confinement in asylums was the only response to psychiatric disorders are long gone. Yet, despite the combined progress of psychotherapy and pharmacology over the last fifty years with the advent of neuroleptics, "60 % of patients affected by a psychiatric illness still do not respond sufficiently to their treatment ", recalls Professor Marion Leboyer, Inserm Grand Prix 2021 and director of the FondaMental foundation.

Psychiatry Depression Resistant depression Schizophrenia