In this episode of The Psych Commute, Dr. Brandon Brown introduces a practical clinical decision-making framework: DEAL and its more detailed version, DEAPL, designed for moments of uncertainty when time and information are limited. Using a tense inpatient case of a severely dysregulated patient with seizure-like activity in a resource-constrained psychiatric setting, he walks through how to systematically define the problem, enumerate options, assess whether you have enough information, predict possible outcomes, and ultimately choose the path that minimizes downside risk. The episode highlights how even in the absence of definitive diagnostics, structured thinking can guide safe, rational decisions and offers a mental model clinicians can carry into any challenging situation.

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