Neuroscience and Psychiatry: Mending the Schism

Brian H. Kopell, MD, and his team of experts from the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai just become the first in the United States to perform a deep brain stimulation (DBS) implantation procedure, investigating this technology for treatment-resistant depression. Kopell is quoted as saying there is a “schism between what is considered ‘psychiatric’ and what is ‘neurological’.” What can psychiatrists and mental health clinicians do to mend that schism, and how can neuroscience and psychiatry best work together?

"At the end of the day, these are brain disorders," Kopell told Psychiatric Times. "I always say to my psychiatry colleagues that are a part of our team, 'You're a limbic neurologist.'"

DBS and other circuit-forward approaches, like TMS and focused ultrasound, are trying to heal that schism between what is considered something other than just a neurology approach to treating these disorders, shared Kopell.

Dr Kopell is a professor of Neurosurgery, Neurology, Psychiatry, and Neuroscience. He serves as director of the Center for Neuromodulation and codirector of The Bonnie and Tom Strauss Center for Movement Disorders at the Mount Sinai Health System. He has pioneered the use of intraoperative imaging during deep brain stimulation.