Response to Classmate Post
Treatment cannot be successful without a proper diagnosis. That is the key takeaway from this post. The approach made in this discussion gives a different perspective as to why it is vital to incorporate neuroanatomy into psychiatry. Finding the exact place in the brain where fear processing or memory consolidation occurs allows the psychiatrist to diagnose a patient properly and offer an effective treatment targeting the exact location in the brain (Henderson et al., 2020). We cannot continue assuming there are no connections between mental health issues and brain functioning. These two are more interconnected since human behavior stems from the beliefs and memories held by an individual. Neuroanatomy allows the psychiatrist to understand how different brain areas impact neuropsychiatric functioning.
When neuroanatomy is incorporated, the amount of time spent diagnosing a patient will increase. However, the diagnosis would be concrete in that the patient will be appropriately diagnosed, and recommended treatment will be effective. The post indicates how psychiatrists spend minimal time diagnosing a patient and tend to use the same treatment methodologies for patients with the same diagnosis. The impact is that a patient continues to suffer, and the psychiatrist does not realize they might have made a wrong diagnosis.
By looking at how we can improve patient diagnosis and treatment using neuroanatomy, there is an increased likelihood that more psychiatrists will embrace the study of neuroanatomy (Schildkrout, 2017). The most vital thing is to demonstrate the effectiveness of incorporating neuroanatomy into psychiatry, and this has been done by showing how we might be misdiagnosing patients. The post further indicates how to differentiate the DSM-V diagnoses using neuroanatomy (Henderson et al., 2020). Also, psychiatrists tend to rely on clinical experiences and not scientific evidence when making a diagnosis, negatively impacting patient outcomes. Therefore, we can avoid the unnecessary treatment of a patient who would be unresponsive to treatment. Using neuroanatomy, we can be confident the diagnosis made and treatment initiated will assist the patient.
References
Henderson, T. A., Van Lierop, M. J., McLean, M., Uszler, J. M., Thornton, J. F., Siow, Y.-H., Pavel, D. G., Cardaci, J., & Cohen, P. (2020). Functional neuroimaging in psychiatryaiding in diagnosis and guiding treatment. What the American Psychiatric Association does not know. Frontiers in psychiatry, 11, 276.
Schildkrout, B. (2017). Neuroanatomy and the 21st Century Psychiatrist. Psychiatric Times, 34(3), 21.
