IS EVIDENCE-BASED PSYCH ETHICAL IPPP

Rated as one of the top 15 breakthroughs in medicine over the last 150 years evidence-based medicine (EBM) has become highly influential in medicine. Put simply EBM promotes a seemingly irrefutable principle: that decision-making in medical practice should be based as much as possible on the most up-to-date research findings. EBM has been particularly popular within psychiatry a field that is haunted by a legacy of controversial interventions. For advocates anchoring psychiatric practice in research data makes psychiatry more scientific valid and ethically legitimate. Few however have questioned whether EBM a concept pioneered by those working in other areas of medicine can be applied to psychiatric disorders. In this groundbreaking book the Canadian psychiatrist and ethicist Mona Gupta analyzes the basic assumptions of EBM and critically examines their applicability to psychiatry. By highlighting the basic ethical tensions between psychiatry and EBM the author addresses the fundamental and controversial question - should psychiatrists practice evidence-based medicine at all?