Treating Depression Is Guesswork. Psychiatrists Are Beginning to Crack the Code

April 4, 2017

(Vox) – But no one treatment reliably works for everyone. And it’s not just about talk therapy versus drugs. Even in the realm of medication, available drugs like Zoloft and Cymbalta will work for some but not others. Enter “precision psychiatry.” Inspired in part by “precision medicine,” which changed the way doctors treat certain kinds of cancer, psychiatric researchers are hoping to bring a “precision” approach to diagnosing and treating depression using brain scans and machine learning algorithms. Too many patients are left frustrated after treatments fail. These scientists think they can do better.