I’m part of the team writing the next bible of psychiatry – for the first time, the DSM will use biology to understand mental disorders

The American Psychiatric Association plans to update the DSM, the standard reference for psychiatric diagnosis, to incorporate neurobiology for the first time — something the current DSM-5, released in 2013, has been criticized for lacking. A committee member reports the update takes a cautious approach, distinguishing unproven biological 'factors' from measurable 'biomarkers,' of which psychiatry currently has essentially none outside Alzheimer's disease.

Cited advances include a 2025 FDA-approved blood test for Alzheimer's proteins, elevated C-reactive protein levels found in about 30% of depression patients as a possible treatment-response marker, and ongoing genetic risk research. The piece stresses that mental disorders remain loosely defined, overlapping syndromes rather than discrete diseases, making a single clean biomarker for conditions like depression or schizophrenia unlikely anytime soon.

The full dispatch is available from the source below.