Digital Phenotyping: Technology for a New Science of Behavior.

Traditionally, psychiatry has offered clinical insights through keen behavioral observation and a deep study of emotion. With the subsequent biological revolution in psychiatry displacing psychoanalysis, some psychiatrists were concerned that the field shifted from “brainless” to “mindless.”1 Over the past 4 decades, behavioral expertise, once the strength of psychiatry, has diminished in importanceaspsychiatricresearchfocusedonpharmacology,genomics, and neuroscience, and much of psychiatric practicehasbecomeaseriesofbriefclinical interactionsfocused on medication management. In research settings, assigning a diagnosis from the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders has become a surrogate for behavioral observation. In practice, few clinicians measure emotion, cognition, or behavior with any standard, validated tools. Some recent changes in both research and practice are promising. The National Institute of Mental Health has led an effort to create a new diagnostic approach for researchers that is intended to combine biological, behavioral, and social factors to create “precision medicine for psychiatry.”2 Although this Research Domain Criteria project has been controversial, the ensuing debate has been