Cancer care uses biological tests to guide treatment. Why doesn't psychiatry?

by University of California, Los Angeles

edited by Swati Mestri, reviewed by Andrew Zinin

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For many people with depression, schizophrenia or other psychiatric conditions, finding the right medication means trying one medication, waiting weeks to see how it goes and often trying another. Unlike conditions such as cancer and Alzheimer's disease, there are few reliable biological tests to predict which treatment will help a person with a particular psychiatric disorder.

A new position paper from the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology (ACNP), co-led by UCLA Health, lays out a plan to change that.

The consensus paper, published in the journal NPP—Digital Psychiatry and Neuroscience, was created by the ACNP Precompetitive Stakeholder Task Force. Its authors include university researchers, including UCLA Health, representatives of the pharmaceutical industry, scientists from the National Institute of Mental Health and the FDA's Office of Neuroscience.

The researchers state that the central issue is that two people with the same diagnosis can have very different biology, yet current psychiatric drug trials typically group participants by symptoms alone. A medication that works well for one subgroup can look ineffective when tested in a mixed population.

The authors propose using biomarkers, measurable signals from blood, brain activity or wearable devices, to more precisely identify those subgroups and design better trials. Over time, the same tools could help guide treatment choices for individual patients, the authors state.

Precision biomarkers have already shown promise in cancer care, cardiac care and brain diseases such as Alzheimer's disease and Parkinson's disease. The authors argue psychiatry can follow a similar path.

The authors note that their roadmap focuses on precompetitive collaboration for drug development and that bringing validated tests into everyday care is a separate, later step. They also point out that biomarkers can already be used in drug trials without a lengthy FDA approval process, a common misunderstanding that may be slowing progress.

"Right now, patients rely on repeated trials to learn whether a medication is working for them, which is costly and time-consuming," said the paper's first author, Dr. Sahib Khalsa, a psychiatrist and director of Anxiety Disorders Research at the UCLA Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior.

"The goal of this effort is to give clinicians, researchers, drug developers and drug regulators better ways to collaborate and see the biology behind a person's symptoms so treatments can be matched more accurately from the start."

Key recommendations in the paper include:

• Agree on common definitions and clear intended uses for psychiatric biomarkers
• Run small, focused studies of blood tests, genetics, brain-wave recordings (EEG) and wearable device data that can show early signs of treatment response
• Test promising biomarkers in existing large datasets before launching costly new trials
• Create a precompetitive framework for data sharing, including results that did not pan out, available to scientists and companies
• Standardize how biomarker data are collected and analyzed across research sites
• Consult the FDA and European regulators early, including on newer approaches that combine multiple types of data
• Show industry and payers how biomarker-guided trials can lower costs and improve results

"Precision psychiatry will not emerge from isolated breakthroughs," the authors conclude.

"It will require sustained collaboration around shared standards and shared data."

More information

Sahib S. Khalsa et al, Toward actionable biomarkers in psychiatry: a collaborative roadmap for precision clinical trials. An ACNP position paper, NPP—Digital Psychiatry and Neuroscience (2026). DOI: 10.1038/s44277-026-00069-w

Key medical concepts

BiomarkersElectroencephalography

Clinical categories

PsychiatryPsychology & Mental health Provided by University of California, Los Angeles Who's behind this story?

Swati Mestri

Swati Mestri holds a bachelor's degree in Electronics Engineering and has worked as a content editor since 2019. She has experience editing research documents across technology, health care, and materials science, and has a particular interest in technology and space. Full profile →

Andrew Zinin

Master's in physics with research experience. Long-time science news enthusiast. Plays key role in Science X's editorial success. Full profile →

Citation: Cancer care uses biological tests to guide treatment. Why doesn't psychiatry? (2026, September 21) retrieved 21 September 2026 from https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-09-cancer-biological-treatment-doesnt-psychiatry.html This document is subject to copyright. Apart from any fair dealing for the purpose of private study or research, no part may be reproduced without the written permission. The content is provided for information purposes only.