STAT March 8, 2024
In many ways, psychiatry is still flying blind. People experiencing mental health conditions are prescribed various drugs until one (or a combination) finally works — a painful process that can take years. As a psychiatrist and neuroscientist, I became increasingly impatient and frustrated with this ineffective way of treating patients. This guided the core question behind my research: Can biology explain how people with the same psychiatric disorder respond differently to the same treatment?
Since I first began exploring this question more than a decade ago, mental illness has become a global epidemic. Despite significant efforts, progress in psychiatric drug development has remained disappointingly slow. There have been a few notable approvals in recent years, and a renewal of interest...