Ethical, policy, and research considerations for personalized psychiatry

Advances in big data, biobanks, digital phenotyping, proteomics, and genomics have all had a significant impact on the emerging field of personalized psychiatry. Yet rapid technological changes, novel treatments, and research paradigms also present a host of new scientific, ethical, and policy challenges. For example, patients and providers now have the option of obtaining a tremendous amount of genomic data at minimal cost. But it is not clear how accurate or predictive much of this data is, and more data does not always lead to better outcomes. Outside of direct patient care, this data can be aggregated and used to advance medical research, but it also may be used in objectionable ways. In this chapter, we highlight some of the implications of advances in personalized psychiatry and discuss key considerations for guiding appropriate patient care and policy making.