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A mental health diagnosis can give a name to what someone is experiencing, but does putting a label on anxiety, depression, bipolar disorder, or another condition actually tell us enough about the person we're trying to treat?

Dr. Andrew Rosen and Dr. David Gross take a critical look at the way mental health conditions are diagnosed and the heavy reliance on the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual, or DSM. They discuss how psychiatric diagnoses differ from many medical diagnoses because they're largely based on symptoms and observations rather than blood tests, imaging, biopsies, or other objective measures. Emerging genetic research showing overlap among traditionally separate psychiatric disorders raises even more questions about whether today's diagnostic categories tell the whole story.

They also explore how insurance requirements, electronic health records, medication prescribing, and the push toward "evidence-based" treatment can sometimes make the diagnosis more important than understanding the individual. A label may be useful, but it doesn't necessarily explain someone's relationships, trauma, life circumstances, physical health, or the other factors contributing to what they're experiencing.

Ultimately, Rosen and Gross make the case for looking beyond the diagnosis. Mental health treatment requires science and evidence, but it also requires experience, clinical judgment, collaboration, and taking the time to understand the person sitting in the room.

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