Co-authored by Eugene Rubin, M.D., Ph.D., and Charles Zorumski, M.D.

We published the book Demystifying Psychiatry: A Resource for Patients and Families 15 years ago. Since then, we have published 206 articles on Psychology Today in which we have extended discussions in the book regarding advances in clinical and preclinical science.

The principles of treatment we outlined in the book remain timely. However, substantial progress in available treatments has occurred over the last 15 years. We mention some of these developments below.

We initially outlined seven basic principles of psychiatric care in Demystifying Psychiatry. These remain relevant today and bear repeating:

Since we published Demystifying Psychiatry, basic and clinical neuroscience research has led to new treatments with novel mechanisms of action that differ from older treatments. Prior to these more recent advances, new treatments involved tweaking approaches that had been available since the 1960s.

Below, we list several new treatments that have become available for

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