The Future of Psychiatry

It seems the future of Psychiatry is more uncertain at this time than it ever has been before. It is observed that the crisis has risen due to the fact that Psychiatry studies done in the past failed to integrate symptoms classifications with biomarkers. This crisis in Psychiatry can be described as failure of biocommensuration. What do we understand by “Commensuration”?  “Commensuration” is the process of comparing essentially dissimilar entities which each other by establishing some common criterion. It is to find if any of the entities can be exchanged or substituted with each other. Biocommensuration are all those forms of commensurations that involve with human vitality, health, diseases and healing. Adding the suffix ‘Bio’ to commensuration helps to point out those moments in human life when life and vitality are directly evaluated measured and exchanged.

The DSM 5 is the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, a Handbook used by Psychiatrist in America and much of the world as a guide to mental disorder. However, the problem with DSM5 guide is that it was unable to integrate biomarkers with its symptoms based diagnosis. The neuroscientific data could not be commensurated with existing diseases classification. For example ‘Schizophrenia’ as a genotype does not correlate with its Genotype.

Biocommensuration is much needed to boost Psychiatry as not only does it capture the changes in Psychiatry but can help reconfigure relations between medical diagnostics, the different therapies, lifestyle, and other areas that will help determine why and how biocommensuration will or may work while others fail.

By: Madhuchanda Saxena

Content: http://www.anthropology-news.org/index.php/2018/07/19/biocommensurations/