Revisiting neuropsychiatry as a psychiatric discipline

Even cognitive–behavioural therapy, one of the most studied psychotherapeutic interventions, was developed by a neurologist and recognises that the brain undergoes significant changes due to cognitions, ultimately leading to maladaptive behaviours beyond conscious awareness or personal agency.3 One cannot speak of psychiatric disorders without recognising and appreciating the organ responsible for behaviour and cognition. [...]significant evidence suggests that psychiatric research is on the brink of discovering quantitative measures of its disorders, including but not limited to neuroimaging techniques,4,5 neuropsychological evaluations,6–8 and psychological tests such as those related to implicit associations.9,10 If one is to believe that psychiatry will remain entirely distinct from neurology and that the field need not merge with the professionals who also treat the central nervous system manifestations of brain dysfunction, regardless of aetiology, then psychiatry is destined to lose its footing when technology catches up to the incessantly changing brain that falls prey to inter- and intrapersonal events. 1 Fitzgerald M. Do psychiatry and neurology need a close partnership or merger? 10.1016/j.jagp.2013.01.025 7 Keilp JG, Gorlyn M, Russell M, Oquendo MA, Burke AK, Harkavy-Friedman J, Neuropsychological function and suicidal behavior: attention control, memory and executive dysfunction in suicide attempt.