About the Diagnostic Lenses Framework

The Diagnostic Lenses Framework is an organized clinical approach to exploring biologic etiologies underlying psychiatric presentations. It is designed to complement the syndromal approach of contemporary diagnostic classification systems by providing a structured way to recognize and investigate biologically relevant information that may emerge during routine psychiatric assessment.

The framework is trigger-based. Rather than requiring clinicians to begin every psychiatric assessment with an extensive biologic differential diagnosis, it identifies specific clinical findings that should prompt a shift from primarily syndromal reasoning to more focused biologic diagnostic reasoning. These findings activate one or more of the diagnostic lenses. Each lens provides a structured pathway to a focused differential diagnosis of conditions that may account for both the clinical finding and the psychiatric presentation.

The framework is intended for general psychiatrists and psychiatry trainees; subspecialists in consultation-liaison psychiatry, neuropsychiatry, and psychogeriatrics; and physicians in primary care and other specialties who commonly encounter psychiatric presentations.

The framework is a conceptual model for clinical reasoning education and has not yet been empirically validated. It is not intended to replace clinical judgment or comprehensive diagnostic formulation by a qualified medical practitioner.

About the author

Dr Islam Hassan is a Consultant Psychiatrist and Clinical Associate Professor with qualifications spanning internal medicine (FRCP [London]) and psychiatry (FRCPsych, FRANZCP, FRCPC), as well as subspecialty qualifications in electroencephalography (CSCN), consultation-liaison psychiatry (RANZCP), and neuropsychiatry (UCNS).

He is a Clinical Associate Professor of Psychiatry at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada, and at Adelaide University in Australia.

The Diagnostic Lenses Framework and PsychiatryDiagnosis.org are independent projects of Dr Hassan and are not affiliated with or endorsed by any of the institutions with which he holds academic appointments.