Psychiatry Today : Biology vs. Psychology

This research addresses preferences and theoretical leanings of present-day psychiatrists along the continuum defined at one end by biology and at the other by psychology. A questionnaire was devised and sent to 5,702 randomly selected members of the American Psychiatric Association in 1990. The response rate was 307%. The results were analyzed for two groups: psychiatrists with fewer than 15 years of practice since residency and psychiatrists with more than 15 years of practice since graduation. Although the great majority of psychiatrists in both groups equally valued psychology and biology, the senior group attributed a greater importance to psychological methods, whereas the younger group stressed equally the importance of biology and psychology. This suggests that psychiatry has evolved over the years from a predominantly psychological practice to one with a more equal emphasis on psychology and biology. Recent advances in neuroscience may have shifted the pendulum toward a more balanced willingness of clinicians to consider the broad armamentarium of psychosocial and biological treatments. The results point to the need for further conceptualization into the relationship between biology and psychology and its incorporation into the psychiatric residency curriculum.