There is a clear problem with the mental health treatment landscape of today–nearly one third of patients with depression are treatment-resistant and nearly half of generalized anxiety disorder patients are at least partially treatment-resistant. Upon reading the September 2025 issue of Monitor on Psychology–the American Psychology Association’s magazine, I discovered a promising new approach to treatment that may drastically change that.
Precision health, an individualized treatment model already employed in varied fields including cancer and cardiology, is becoming adopted in mental health as well. Currently, treatment approaches are chosen based on mental health diagnosis. In contrast, precision health takes a holistic approach to personalize treatment based on factors beyond only a patient’s symptoms–factors such as brain circuitry, biomarkers, genetics, environment, behavioral patterns, and lifestyle can all be considered. For example, a depression patient who is struggling to get out of bed and a depression patient who cannot maintain stable sleep may respond best to different treatments.
Beyond treatment, a unique strength of precision health is the possibility of personalized prevention. Take a recent study by Dr. Carrie Bearden and colleagues at the University of California, Los Angeles which discovered that participants with both a deletion syndrome on DNA segment 22q11.2 and certain other genetic abnormalities were significantly more likely to develop schizophrenia than individuals with 22q11.2 deletion syndrome without the paired genetic abnormalities (Nature Medicine, Vol. 26, No. 12, 2020). Schizophrenia is one of many mental health disorders that benefit immensely from early intervention, making prevention a crucial advantage of precision health.
As time progresses, many experts are confident that precision health will grow from an experimental approach into a global psychiatry standard.
Inside the Mind 