Precision psychiatry in clinical practice: What is clinically actionable, what is promising, and what remains experimental?

Precision psychiatry seeks to improve individual-level prediction, treatment selection, monitoring, and prevention by integrating clinical, biological, behavioural, digital, and contextual information. This structured narrative review assessed the clinical readiness of major approaches using a purpose-specific framework covering validity, external replication, incremental utility, actionability, patient benefit, feasibility, equity, and governance. Approaches considered clinically actionable in selected settings included structured longitudinal assessment and decision-linked measurement-based care as precision-enabling infrastructure, therapeutic drug monitoring for selected medications and indications, and selected pharmacogenetic gene-drug interactions. Digital phenotyping, artificial intelligence-assisted decision support, neuroimaging and electrophysiological markers, peripheral biomarkers, and multimodal prediction models were classified as promising but not yet ready for routine use. Polygenic risk scores, multiomic subtyping, diagnostic neuroimaging, fully automated treatment selection, and automated prediction of suicide or acute deterioration remained predominantly experimental. Across domains, major barriers included inadequate external validation and calibration, uncertain incremental utility, limited prospective evidence of patient benefit, implementation challenges, cost, underrepresentation of diverse populations, privacy concerns, and unresolved accountability. Precision psychiatry is best understood as a dynamic translational continuum whose value should be judged by whether it supports better, safer, more equitable, and more humane clinical decisions.

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Publication Details

Journal
International Review of Psychiatry
Published
2026-08-27
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1080/09540261.2026.2722686
Primary Topic
Digital Mental Health Interventions
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
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article

Precision psychiatry in clinical practice: What is clinically actionable, what is promising, and what remains experimental?

Iván Barrios, João Maurício Castaldelli-Maia, Gladys Estigarribia, Júlio Torales et al.
International Review of Psychiatry
Digital Mental Health Interventions
article

Precision psychiatry in clinical practice: What is clinically actionable, what is promising, and what remains experimental?

Iván Barrios, João Maurício Castaldelli-Maia, Gladys Estigarribia, Júlio Torales, Marcelo O’Higgins, Antonio Ventriglio, Victor-Guillermo Sequera
article en

Abstract

Precision psychiatry seeks to improve individual-level prediction, treatment selection, monitoring, and prevention by integrating clinical, biological, behavioural, digital, and contextual information. This structured narrative review assessed the clinical readiness of major approaches using a purpose-specific framework covering validity, external replication, incremental utility, actionability, patient benefit, feasibility, equity, and governance. Approaches considered clinically actionable in selected settings included structured longitudinal assessment and decision-linked measurement-based care as precision-enabling infrastructure, therapeutic drug monitoring for selected medications and indications, and selected pharmacogenetic gene-drug interactions. Digital phenotyping, artificial intelligence-assisted decision support, neuroimaging and electrophysiological markers, peripheral biomarkers, and multimodal prediction models were classified as promising but not yet ready for routine use. Polygenic risk scores, multiomic subtyping, diagnostic neuroimaging, fully automated treatment selection, and automated prediction of suicide or acute deterioration remained predominantly experimental. Across domains, major barriers included inadequate external validation and calibration, uncertain incremental utility, limited prospective evidence of patient benefit, implementation challenges, cost, underrepresentation of diverse populations, privacy concerns, and unresolved accountability. Precision psychiatry is best understood as a dynamic translational continuum whose value should be judged by whether it supports better, safer, more equitable, and more humane clinical decisions.

International Review of Psychiatry
University of Foggia (IT), Universidade de São Paulo (BR), Universidad de Los Lagos (CL), Universidad Nacional de Asunción (PY)
Industry, innovation and infrastructure
Openalex Percentile: Top 9%
Digital Mental Health Interventions
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