Towards an ontology for psychosis

There is a pressing need for data interoperability in neuroscience especially in mental health and psychiatric research. Heterogeneity of data in the domain is a combination of a plethora of assessment methods and two clinical classification systems with no formal method of interconversion. Ontologies with their formal logical basis have been successfully used to achieve interoperability in other fields of biology. We discuss the need for an ontology in the domain of psychosis and propose a methodology for building such an ontology. We outline the various factors that are important for building a unifying ontology and how this might serve as a good start for building better classification systems in psychiatry.