Avoiding clinical bias in psychiatry

In psychiatric practice, bias in judgements (for example, diagnosis and risk assessment) and decisions (when and how to treat) is likely to be due to the inherent ambiguity of presenting features (think of the Mona Lisa painting) and the uncertainty of outcome.

This module describes a number of recognised biases in thinking, along with suggestions on how to avoid or compensate for these tendencies.

Furthermore, ways of looking at (and learning from) outcome are reviewed, taking into account the finding that active observation in itself can change the presentation and outcome.

This module offers guidance on:

• definitions of judgements, decisions and outcome,
• the seven areas of bias.