Evidence-based medicine - A critical review

Abstract

Evidence-based medicine is a method to establish best practice recommendations based on graded recommendations for diagnostic and therapeutic issues in health care. In mental healthcare, evidence-based medicine has shown that the therapeutic procedures are efficient and can help to not only ameliorate the symptoms of mental disorders, but also to improve the quality of life of those affected by mental disorders. Evidence-based medicine is not, however, cookbook medicine. While evidence is mostly generated in larger group trials and should be applicable to the majority of cases, aspects of the personal situation, social support systems and legal boundaries all affect mental healthcare and may modulate the interpretation of the findings of evidence-based medicine. A human-based psychiatry will therefore need to use the methods of evidence-based medicine as a basis for diagnostic and therapeutic recommendations, but will also need to extend into the acknowledgements of personal accounts, traditions and the cultural framework, in which mental healthcare is provided. This presentation will highlight some of the issues associated with the questions of the roles of evidence-based medicine in mental healthcare, and in a human-based approach towards mental healthcare.Disclosure of interestUnterstützung bei Symposien/Symposia Support.Janssen-Cilag GmbH, Neuss.Aristo Pharma GmbH, Berlin.Lilly Deutschland GmbH, Bad Homburg.Servier Deutschland GmbH, München.Fakultätsmitglied/Faculty Member.Lundbeck International Neuroscience Foundation (LINF), Dänemark.