'Precision' or 'personalized' psychiatry: different terms – same content?

‘Precision’ or ‘personalized’ psychiatry: different terms – same<br> content? Due to the increased lifetime prevalence and personal,<br> social, and economic burden of mental disorders, psychiatry<br> is in need of a significant change in several aspects of<br> its clinical and research approaches. Over the last few<br> decades, the development of personalized / precision medicine in psychiatry focusing on tailored therapies that<br> fit each patient’s unique individual, physiological, and<br> genetic profile has not achieved the same results as those<br> obtained in other branches, such as oncology. The longawaited<br> revolution has not yet surfaced. There are various<br> explanations for this including imprecise diagnostic criteria,<br> incomplete understanding of the molecular pathology<br> involved, absence of available clinical tools and, finally, the<br> characteristics of the patient. Since then, the co-existence<br> of the two terms has sparked a great deal of discussion<br> around the definition and differentiation between the two<br> types of psychiatry, as they often seem similar or even<br> superimposable. Generally, the two terminologies are used<br> indiscriminately, alternatively, and / or separately, within<br> the same scientific works. In this paper, an overview is<br> provided on the overlap between the application and<br> meaning of the terms ‘precision psychiatry’ and ‘personalized<br> psychiatry’.