Decision analysis in psychiatry.

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Decision analysis is an explicit, quantitative approach to examining difficult decisions about course of action. Its applicability to psychiatry is considered. METHOD: An example of how decision analysis could be used in psychiatry is given, criticism of the technique is discussed, and previous attempts to apply it to mental illness problems (from a Medline search from 1966 onwards) are reviewed. CONCLUSION: The future for decision analysis in psychiatry lies in teaching, audit and research, rather than clinical work.