Precision Medicine: Neuropsychodynamic Psychiatry Model of Major Depressive Disorder

Abstract

Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) is one of the most extensive types of psychiatric disorders. It refers to various symptoms and considerable rates of relapse, where episodes rarely resolve completely even with intensive psychiatric care. There has been growing concern over the ineffectiveness in treating MDD in reductionist domination in the psychiatry domain. The recent development of neuropsychodynamics offers an integrative model incorporating a holistic understanding of the human mind in terms of neuroscience and psychoanalytic theories and provides a potentially effective cure for MDD. In this review, MDD in the neuropsychodynamic model is manifested as an abnormal operation of the self. The chief feature refers to the increasing inward focus of the self and decreasing outward direction of the environment. To argue for the necessity of utilizing neuropsychodynamic methodology in assessing and treating MDD, the advantages of the model were discussed.