APA
Practice Guidelines

The term practice guideline refers to a set of patient care strategies developed to assist physicians in clinical decision making. The American Psychiatric Association (APA) is continually developing new and revised guidelines, which are published as they are completed. To ensure wide dissemination, each practice guideline is made available to readers of The American Journal of Psychiatry.

Readers should note that these parameters of care are indeed “guidelines” and are not intended to be “standards of care.” These guidelines do not necessarily include all proper methods of care for a particular disorder. The ultimate judgment concerning the selection and implementation of a specific plan of treatment must be made by the psychiatrist in light of the clinical data presented by the patient and the diagnostic and treatment options available.

Part A of these guidelines are mailed as supplements with the print issue of The American Journal of Psychiatry and are listed below by the issue they accompanied. Full guidelines are available on the website of the American Psychiatric Association at the Practice Guidelines homepage