In the field of psychiatric expertise, formal quality criteria such as organization, duration and extent of psychiatric exploration are of significant importance to ensure better transparency and reliability. Psychiatric diagnosis should be made according to DSM-IV or ICD-10 criteria. Following an extensive literature review (medline 1980-2007) we will discuss the importance of the use of The Mini International Neuropsychiatric Interview (M.I.N.I.), and other validated clinical diagnosis tools in psychiatric expert practice.

Beside the clinical validated scales, patients with neurotic or personality disorder require particular clinical experience for a good diagnostic assessment, especially because little evidence based medicine in psychiatric expert practice is available. Thus, we emphasize the interest of a good educational program about expert practice for residents.

Large epidemiological studies are required in order to clarify the evolution of patients after the expertise process. Furthermore, randomized studies should optimize the efficacy of a specific combined therapeutic program concerning patients with somatoform disorders.

The creation of an international network of clinicians with experience in psychiatric expert practice could be an important tool, in order to develop and promote evidence based guidelines for diagnosis and therapeutic issues around psychiatric expert practice.