What is precision psychiatry?

Precision psychiatry is an approach to mental health treatment that uses personal data — such as genomics, brain scans and lifestyle — to better understand an individual’s condition, and to personalise treatment so it is more likely to work.

Why the current approach falls short

Mental health conditions are usually diagnosed and treated by identifying broad symptom patterns. For years, patients have said that existing treatments fail to address their most pressing symptoms, often cause significant long-term unwanted effects or withdrawal symptoms, and diminish their quality of life. Broad diagnostic labels can also overlook the specific symptoms people find most disabling.

What a different approach looks like

MHG backs an approach that starts from the most disabling symptoms, identified by people with lived experience, rather than from diagnostic categories alone. That requires deeply characterised cohorts, multi-omic and clinical data at scale, and lived experience embedded in how research questions are set — which is what the programme’s workstreams exist to build.

Source: Mental Health Goals on GOV.UK. How lived experience shapes the programme.