Die Bedeutung neurobiologischer Befunde und vertiefender Psychopathologie für die Forensische Psychiatrie

On the basis of a literature review and on own experiences and considerations, the importance of different sources of knowledge for forensic psychiatric assessments is critically discussed. Neurobiological findings are neither necessary nor sufficient for this. The gold standard is an in-depth psychopathological analysis with respect to the question in each expert opinion, which can be usefully supplemented by neuropsychological and neurobiological findings as needed and when possible. Their interpretation and integration require method-critical competence. Accordingly, forensic psychiatric training and quality assurance geared towards this are necessary in order to improve the reliability and validity of expert assessments.