Panel Discussion 3 - The Future of Case Formulation

Case formulations are a tool to create a comprehensive understanding of why a person experiences psychopathology, and to tailor clinical interventions toward the specific problems and resources of a given person. As a consequence, they address issues connected to manualized treatment, such as a lack of protocols for comorbidity, nonadherence to protocols, and non-existence of protocols for person-specific problems. In recent years, case formulations have been a topic of renewed interest, as prominent researchers have called for a shift away from a “protocols-for-disorders” approach to treatment and toward a process-based approach that emphasized the identification and targeting of person-specific processes. This renewed interest coincides with advances in collecting personalized data that could potentially inform case formulations, as well as new perspectives on understanding mental health as complex dynamical systems that can be represented by computational models and explored via computer simulations. This panel discussion aims to integrate these developments and has two aims: First, to take stock of the case formulation approach and its current hopes and challenges, and second, to outline future avenues that could advance the case formulation approach to a better understanding of personalized psychopathology and psychotherapy. Future avenues that will be discussed are novel research methods and assessment strategies to support case formulation, ways to advance their accuracy and interrater reliability, and approaches to increase cultural inclusivity. The panel includes experts that cover different eras in the case formulation development, ranging from early developments to current methodological and technological advancements.