‘Anxiety and depression’: document of 2022 Ministry of Health Consensus Conference. What is the purpose? The question is a good one and needs an answer

The document under discussion questions the entire scientific community and in particular those dedicated to the protection of physical and mental health. Which chosen method meets truly scientific criteria? What are the ethical and deontological implications? How much attention has been paid to the age of development, which is essential for the proper prevention and protection of future citizens? What understanding has been achieved regarding the pathological processes investigated? How effective is the tool defined as ‘Consensus Conference’ in informing and reaching out to citizens? The author carefully processes these aspects in the article and sends to the scientific community involved new questions that are indispensable for a lay approach (free of connotations and pre-judgments of specific psychological schools) but consistent with the scientific method, indispensable for the collective growth of knowledge. Her effort in commenting on this aspect aims not so much to point out what the author agrees with or disagrees with or to examine the merits of specific contents, but to point out crucial passages where the confusion between epistemological, theoretical, and technical levels generates slippage or the intertwining of levels risks distancing rather than bringing closer the goal that is proposed.