Evidence-based psychiatry Keeping up-to-date

ABSTRACT

As medical knowledge rapidly increases, textbooks become out-of-date whatever effort is made to ensure that they are up-to-date. The psychiatrist, without knowing how to find the best available evidence, may become out of date. Advances in clinical epidemiology and medical informatics have introduced an approach to close the gap between research and practice, thus improving the quality of patient care. This approach is called Evidence-Based Medicine [EBM]. Evidence based medicine emphasizes the examination of evidence from clinical research and de-emphasizes unsystematic clinical experience and subjective rationale. To apply evidence from the medical literature to patient care, evidence-based process involves the application of certain systematic steps. Evidence-based practice assumes that some kinds of evidence are more valid and of greater clinical applicability than others. This paper provides a brief introduction to evidence based psychiatry, its advantages, critique and suggested references that can be used to increase psychiatrist's knowledge of evidence-based psychiatry