Clinical thinking in psychiatry.

I discuss the lack of precision in the term 'clinical reasoning' and its relationship to evidence-based medicine and critical thinking. I examine critical thinking skills, their underemphasis in medical education and successful attempts to remediate them. Evidence-based medicine (and evidence-based psychiatry) offer much but are hampered by the ubiquity and flaws of meta-analysis. I explore views of evidence-based medicine among psychiatry residents, as well as capacity for critical thinking in residents before and after a course in philosophy. I discuss decision making by experienced doctors and suggest possible futures of this issue.