Neuropsychiatry: Definitions, Concepts, and Patient Types

Vassilis E Koliatsos; Robert Wisner-Carlson; Crystal Watkins

doi:10.1016/j.psc.2020.02.007

Neuropsychiatry: Definitions, Concepts, and Patient Types

Psychiatr Clin North Am. 2020 Jun;43(2):213-227. doi: 10.1016/j.psc.2020.02.007.

Authors

Vassilis E Koliatsos¹, Robert Wisner-Carlson², Crystal Watkins³

Affiliations

¹ Neuropsychiatry Program, Sheppard Pratt Health System, The Sheppard and Enoch Pratt Hospital, 6501 North Charles Street, Baltimore, MD 21204, USA; Department of Pathology (Neuropathology), Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA; Department of Neurology, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA; Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA. Electronic address: vkoliatsos@sheppardpratt.org.
² Neuropsychiatry Program, Sheppard Pratt Health System, The Sheppard and Enoch Pratt Hospital, 6501 North Charles Street, Baltimore, MD 21204, USA.
³ Neuropsychiatry Program, Sheppard Pratt Health System, The Sheppard and Enoch Pratt Hospital, 6501 North Charles Street, Baltimore, MD 21204, USA; Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA.

PMID: 32439018
DOI: 10.1016/j.psc.2020.02.007

Abstract

Neuropsychiatry is an integrative discipline defined by its history, its preferred patients, and its theoretic framework. Dealing with human behavior needs to consider the brain, but such consideration should avoid oversimplification: neurologic understanding is not essential, necessary, or desirable in all conditions encountered in clinical psychiatry. Neuropsychiatric theory is founded on discoveries in the areas of synaptic plasticity and cortical/limbic anatomy (bottom-up), but also evolutionary biology and anthropology (top-down). Going forward, we need to synthesize vital information, distinguish the essential from the trivial or tenuous, and remain open to dialogue with allied disciplines, our patients, and our students.

Keywords: Evolutionary biology; Medicine; Neuroanatomy; Neurology; Neuropathology; Neuroplasticity; Neuroscience; Psychiatry.

Publication types

Historical Article
Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
Review

MeSH terms

History, 19th Century
History, 20th Century
Humans
Mental Disorders / pathology*
Neuropsychiatry*