Integrating neuroscience in psychiatry: a cultural-ecosocial systemic approach.
Gómez-Carrillo A., Kirmayer LJ., Aggarwal NK., Bhui KS., Fung KP-L., Kohrt BA., Weiss MG., Lewis-Fernández R., Group for the Advancement of Psychiatry Committee on Cultural Psychiatry .
Psychiatry has increasingly adopted explanations for psychopathology that are based on neurobiological reductionism. With the recognition of health disparities and the realisation that someone's postcode can be a better predictor of health outcomes than their genetic code, there are increasing efforts to ensure cultural and social-structural competence in psychiatric practice. Although neuroscientific and social-cultural approaches in psychiatry remain largely separate, they can be brought together in a multilevel explanatory framework to advance psychiatric theory, research, and practice. In this Personal View, we outline how a cultural-ecosocial systems approach to integrating neuroscience in psychiatry can promote social-contextual and systemic thinking for more clinically useful formulations and person-centred care.