Evidence-Based Medicine in Psychiatry: An Ethical Dilemma or Business as Usual?

Reviews the book, Is Evidence-Based Psychiatry Ethical? by Mona Gupta (see record 2014-12921-000). Evidence-based medicine (EBM), a term coined just over 20 years ago (Evidence-Based Medicine Working Group, 1992), has been assessed as one of the most important “shifts” in medicine over the past few decades. Given the widespread acceptance, it is not surprising that one is first taken back by the title of this book. Gupta admits that it is her opinion that EBM in psychiatry may be limiting and even unethical. However, to her credit, she attempts to balance her concerns, albeit with mixed results. Her data included an extensive review of the EBM literature, the major EBM textbooks, and interviews with early EBM developers, mental health practitioners involved in the EBM debate in the mental health field, and academic scholars who had a philosophical and/or ethical interest in EBM. These data were the basis and framework for Gupta’s arguments and this book. Regardless of whether you agree or disagree with Gupta’s positions, mental health professionals, psychiatry residents, medical students, and scholars in medical ethics will find this book to be a stimulating and controversial discussion. It does an excellent job exploring the issues, clarifying the arguments pro and con, and encouraging further discussion, debate, and scholarship in this area. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved)