Abstract
Background: Decision analysis is an explicit, quantitative approach to examining difficult decisions about course of action. Its applicability to psychiatry is considered.Method: An example of how decision analysis could be used in psychiatry is given, criticism of the technique is discussed, and previous attempts to apply it to mental illness problems (from a Medline search from 1966 onwards) are reviewed.Conclusion: The future for decision analysis in psychiatry lies in teaching, audit and research, rather than clinical work.

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