Definition and research guide
This page combines a MeSH definition, publication statistics and selected research abstracts. It is a starting point for reading the literature, not a medical textbook or a systematic evidence review.
Content available: 3 complete abstracts (606 words), 9 references. Full article text is not stored or reproduced here; follow the PMID, DOI or PMC links to read the original sources and their access terms.
Definition
The medical science that deals with the origin, diagnosis, prevention, and treatment of mental disorders.
Definition: NLM Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) scope note (Public domain (U.S. National Library of Medicine); attribution requested). View the MeSH record.
Where it fits in the MeSH classification
- Broader topics
- Behavioral Sciences; Medicine
- Narrower topics
- Adolescent Psychiatry; Biological Psychiatry; Child Psychiatry; Community Psychiatry; Ethnopsychology; Forensic Psychiatry; Geriatric Psychiatry; Military Psychiatry; Neuropsychiatry; Orthopsychiatry; Psychoanalysis; Psychosomatic Medicine
Research landscape
PubMed indexes 115,209 records tagged with the MeSH heading “Psychiatry” (counts retrieved 2026-11-04). 11,243 of them (9.8%) were published from 2020 onward, and the busiest period so far is through 1999 with 59,751 records.
Reviews account for 10,171 records (8.8%) and meta-analyses for 126. Randomized controlled trials number 482 (0.4%) as a share of all records on the topic. Randomized trials make up only a small share of this literature, so much of what is known comes from laboratory, observational or descriptive work.
Show the data
| Period | Records |
|---|---|
| through 1999 | 59,751 |
| 2000-2009 | 21,868 |
| 2010-2019 | 22,347 |
| 2020 onward | 11,243 |
Publication-type chart data
| Type | Records | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Reviews | 10,171 | 8.8% |
| Meta-analyses | 126 | 0.1% |
| Randomized controlled trials | 482 | 0.4% |
Method: PubMed query "Psychiatry"[MeSH Terms] with publication-type and date filters, retrieved 2026-11-04.
Reading the evidence in psychiatry and psychology
Research on mental health and behaviour relies on questionnaires, interviews and rating scales rather than physical measurements, so how a condition was defined and measured shapes every result. Many studies are observational or small, placebo responses can be large, and findings in one group or culture may not carry over to another. Nothing on this page is advice about diagnosis or treatment; anyone worried about their mental health should talk to a qualified clinician. Check how outcomes were measured, who took part and how long they were followed.
Evidence from open-access studies
These open-access studies come from PubMed’s best-match results for this heading (papers whose main topic it is), ranked here by citation count, with one recent addition. Each abstract is reproduced in full under its recorded open licence so that you can read the authors’ own words. They illustrate the literature; they are not a systematic summary of it. Citation counts measure attention, not reliability or clinical benefit.
| Study / authors | Year | Source label / design | Europe PMC citations | Licence / source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Psychiatry in the age of AI: transforming theory, practice, and medical education | 2025 | Review article Design not recorded in structured metadata | 10 | cc by PMID 41089865 · DOI · PMC12515848 |
| GALENOS approach to triangulating evidence (GATE): transforming the landscape of psychiatric research | 2026 | Review article Design not recorded in structured metadata | 8 | cc by PMID 41199459 · DOI · PMC7619210 |
| Ethical issues with psychedelic-assisted treatments in psychiatry: A systematic scoping review | 2025 | Research article Design not recorded in structured metadata | 6 | cc by PMID 41017267 · DOI · PMC12527517 |
Psychiatry in the age of AI: transforming theory, practice, and medical education [1]
Abstract reading summary — source excerpts
- Opening excerpt
- Mental disorders constitute an urgent and escalating global public-health concern.
- Closing excerpt
- Only by embedding AI fluency within a robust framework of humanistic and professional values can the next generation of psychiatrists be equipped to harness algorithmic tools responsibly and to translate their outputs into clinically meaningful decisions.
- Interpretation limits
- Verbatim excerpts from the authors’ abstract; the closing excerpt may describe a finding, limitation or recommendation. Design, population, effect size and uncertainty have not been independently extracted or appraised. Read the complete abstract and linked paper before interpreting the findings.
Read complete abstract (182 words)
Mental disorders constitute an urgent and escalating global public-health concern. Recent advances in artificial intelligence (AI) have begun to transform both psychiatric theory and clinical practice, generating unprecedented opportunities for precision diagnosis, mechanistic insight and personalized intervention. Here, we present a narrative review that examines the current landscape of AI-enhanced psychiatry, evaluates AI's capacity to refine diagnostic nosology, elucidate etiological mechanisms, formalize diagnostic criteria and optimize treatment strategies, and delineates the concomitant ethical, legal and social challenges-most notably those arising from data privacy, algorithmic bias and inequitable access to technological resources. In parallel, the review interrogates the implications of this technological inflection point for medical education. It argues that contemporary training programs must evolve through systematic curricular re-design, the incorporation of computational and data science competencies, the adoption of integrative pedagogical models that couple theoretical instruction with hands-on algorithmic practice, and the reinforcement of bioethical literacy. Only by embedding AI fluency within a robust framework of humanistic and professional values can the next generation of psychiatrists be equipped to harness algorithmic tools responsibly and to translate their outputs into clinically meaningful decisions.
Abstract reproduced from the open-access article under the recorded cc by licence; © the authors. PMID 41089865 · DOI · PMC12515848
GALENOS approach to triangulating evidence (GATE): transforming the landscape of psychiatric research [2]
Abstract reading summary — source excerpts
- Opening excerpt
- There is an urgent need for better evidence-based interventions in mental health.
- Closing excerpt
- With GATE at its core, GALENOS not only enables novel insights to emerge, but points us towards a future of collaborative research better equipped to examine the most pressing questions in mental health.
- Interpretation limits
- Verbatim excerpts from the authors’ abstract; the closing excerpt may describe a finding, limitation or recommendation. Design, population, effect size and uncertainty have not been independently extracted or appraised. Read the complete abstract and linked paper before interpreting the findings.
Read complete abstract (176 words)
There is an urgent need for better evidence-based interventions in mental health. High-quality randomised controlled trials in humans are often lacking, especially when dealing with complex situations or novel therapeutic targets. Other potentially useful data may be available, such as from early-phase trials, observational or mechanistic studies or animal experiments. Triangulation offers an opportunity to consider a wider variety of evidence together to prioritise future research directions, and ultimately to inform clinical decisions. Here we describe GATE (the GALENOS Approach to Triangulating Evidence). This is the methodology of triangulation, co-produced with people with lived experience, and applied as an integral part of the GALENOS project (Global Alliance for Living Evidence on aNxiety, depressiOn and pSychosis; https://www.galenos.org.uk/). We outline the considerations of triangulation in psychiatry and our experience to date in assessing animal and human data together, using triangulation to prioritise future research directions. With GATE at its core, GALENOS not only enables novel insights to emerge, but points us towards a future of collaborative research better equipped to examine the most pressing questions in mental health.
Abstract reproduced from the open-access article under the recorded cc by licence; © the authors. PMID 41199459 · DOI · PMC7619210
Ethical issues with psychedelic-assisted treatments in psychiatry: A systematic scoping review [3]
Abstract reading summary — source excerpts
- Opening excerpt
- Based on promising preliminary results from clinical trials, it seems likely that psychedelic substances (classic serotonergic psychedelics, such as psilocybin, and entactogens, such as MDMA) will be introduced into psychiatry as psychedelic-assisted therapy.
- Closing excerpt
- The results can be used to inform and stimulate further discussion and in-depth research on the ethics of psychedelic-assisted treatments, possibly leading to more nuanced debate surrounding a safer and more ethical implementation of psychedelic-assisted treatments in the future.
- Interpretation limits
- Verbatim excerpts from the authors’ abstract; the closing excerpt may describe a finding, limitation or recommendation. Design, population, effect size and uncertainty have not been independently extracted or appraised. Read the complete abstract and linked paper before interpreting the findings.
Read complete abstract (248 words)
Based on promising preliminary results from clinical trials, it seems likely that psychedelic substances (classic serotonergic psychedelics, such as psilocybin, and entactogens, such as MDMA) will be introduced into psychiatry as psychedelic-assisted therapy. This also raises a range of ethical questions that urgently need to be addressed before widespread roll-out in society. This scoping review fills a gap in the literature by providing an overview of these ethical issues using a systematic search, presentation, and descriptive analysis of ethical issues in psychedelic-assisted treatments. It includes peer-reviewed studies pertaining to human study participants and psychiatric patients (population), which discuss ethical issues (concept) of psychedelic treatments (context) in clinical trials and other clinical applications. The systematic search included several databases: MEDLINE, PsycInfo, CINAHL, HeinOnline, and PsycArticles. The search strategy, including all identified keywords and index terms, was adapted for each included database. The search was completed in June 2025 and studies published until then in any language were included. After an iterative process of inductive and deductive coding of ethical issues, the scoping review comprises seven themes related to the ethics of psychedelic-assisted treatments: (1) safety and patient well-being, (2) therapeutic relationships, (3) informed consent, (4) equity and access, (5) research ethics, (6) special contexts, and (7) societal and cultural implications. The results can be used to inform and stimulate further discussion and in-depth research on the ethics of psychedelic-assisted treatments, possibly leading to more nuanced debate surrounding a safer and more ethical implementation of psychedelic-assisted treatments in the future.
Abstract reproduced from the open-access article under the recorded cc by licence; © the authors. PMID 41017267 · DOI · PMC12527517
Key reviews and meta-analyses
The most cited review-type papers among PubMed’s best-match results for this heading, listed with bibliographic details only. Follow the links for the full text and access terms.
- Research article The prediction of criminal and violent recidivism among mentally disordered offenders: a meta-analysis [4]
- Research article Putting the efficacy of psychiatric and general medicine medication into perspective: review of meta-analyses [5]
- Research article Sexual orientation concealment and mental health: A conceptual and meta-analytic review [6]
- Research article Canadian Network for Mood and Anxiety Treatments (CANMAT) 2016 Clinical Guidelines for the Management of Adults with Major Depressive Disorder: Section 6. Special Populations: Youth, Women, and the Elderly [7]
- Research article Clinician guidelines for the treatment of psychiatric disorders with nutraceuticals and phytoceuticals: The World Federation of Societies of Biological Psychiatry (WFSBP) and Canadian Network for Mood and Anxiety Treatments (CANMAT) Taskforce [8]
- Research article Interventions to Reduce Compulsory Psychiatric Admissions: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis [9]
Full-text reviews on EvidenceLib
Open-access review articles about this topic, reproduced in full with authors, licence and references.
A paradigm shift in translational psychiatry through rodent neuroethology
Yair Shemesh, Alon Chen · Molecular Psychiatry 2023 · CC BY 4.0
Minocycline as Treatment for Psychiatric and Neurological Conditions: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis
Bruna Panizzutti, David Skvarc, Sylvia Lin et al. · International Journal of Molecular Sciences 2023 · CC BY 4.0
References
- Zheng H, Zhang X. Psychiatry in the age of AI: transforming theory, practice, and medical education. . 2025. PMID 41089865 · DOI · PMC12515848
- Smith KA, Downs J, Robinson ESJ, Malhi GS, Potts J, Tonia T, et al.. GALENOS approach to triangulating evidence (GATE): transforming the landscape of psychiatric research. . 2026. PMID 41199459 · DOI · PMC7619210
- Caporuscio C, Poppe C, Gieselmann A, Repantis D. Ethical issues with psychedelic-assisted treatments in psychiatry: A systematic scoping review. . 2025. PMID 41017267 · DOI · PMC12527517
- Bonta J, Law M, Hanson K. The prediction of criminal and violent recidivism among mentally disordered offenders: a meta-analysis. Psychol Bull. 1998. PMID 9522681 · DOI
- Leucht S, Hierl S, Kissling W, Dold M, Dold M, Davis JM. Putting the efficacy of psychiatric and general medicine medication into perspective: review of meta-analyses. Br J Psychiatry. 2012. PMID 22297588 · DOI
- Pachankis JE, Mahon CP, Jackson SD, Fetzner BK, Bränström R. Sexual orientation concealment and mental health: A conceptual and meta-analytic review. Psychol Bull. 2020. PMID 32700941 · DOI · PMC8011357
- MacQueen GM, Frey BN, Ismail Z, Jaworska N, Steiner M, Lieshout RJ, et al.. Canadian Network for Mood and Anxiety Treatments (CANMAT) 2016 Clinical Guidelines for the Management of Adults with Major Depressive Disorder: Section 6. Special Populations: Youth, Women, and the Elderly. Can J Psychiatry. 2016. PMID 27486149 · DOI · PMC4994788
- Sarris J, Ravindran A, Yatham LN, Marx W, Rucklidge JJ, McIntyre RS, et al.. Clinician guidelines for the treatment of psychiatric disorders with nutraceuticals and phytoceuticals: The World Federation of Societies of Biological Psychiatry (WFSBP) and Canadian Network for Mood and Anxiety Treatments (CANMAT) Taskforce. World J Biol Psychiatry. 2022. PMID 35311615 · DOI
- de Jong MH, Kamperman AM, Oorschot M, Priebe S, Bramer W, van de Sande R, et al.. Interventions to Reduce Compulsory Psychiatric Admissions: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis. JAMA Psychiatry. 2016. PMID 27249180 · DOI
About this article
- Sources
- NLM Medical Subject Headings (definition, synonyms); NCBI PubMed (counts, identifiers); Europe PMC (open-access abstracts and citation counts).
- Verification
- Every reference was resolved against PubMed on 2026-11-04; title, year and DOI matched.
- Review state
- automated source verified; no human expert review has been recorded yet.
- Version
- 1, last updated 2026-11-04.
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Evidence strength
EvidenceHelix's computed view of the study designs behind this topic: how common meta-analyses, randomized trials and reviews are, how recent the literature is, and a plain-language reading. It describes the design mix of the literature. It is not a quality appraisal of any study, and it is not medical advice.