Shared decision making in mental health: prospects for personalized medicine

TLDR

Shared decision making is a structured process encouraging full participation by patient and provider, yet its impact on adherence, self‑management, and health outcomes remains to be studied. The paper describes the shared decision‑making model, reviews its current status in mental health, and discusses its potential impact on personalized medicine. Implementing shared decision making broadly requires re‑engineering clinical care flow, greater use of information technology, and similar changes to integrate genomic and other biological data with patients’ values and clinicians’ expertise. Current research shows that shared decision making improves patient participation and decision quality, and the future of personalized medicine depends on building the necessary infrastructure and cultural receptivity.

Abstract

This paper describes the shared decision-making model, reviews its current status in the mental health field, and discusses its potential impact on personalized medicine. Shared decision making denotes a structured process that encourages full participation by patient and provider. Current research shows that shared decision making can improve the participation of mental health patients and the quality of decisions in terms of knowledge and values. The impact of shared decision making on adherence, illness self-management, and health outcomes remains to be studied. Implementing shared decision making broadly will require re-engineering the flow of clinical care in routine practice settings and much greater use of information technology Similar changes will be needed to combine genomic and other biological data with patients' values and preferences and with clinicians' expertise. The future of personalized medicine is dearly linked with our ability to create the infrastructure and cultural receptivity to these changes.