The American Psychiatric Association is calling for a halt to "armchair" analyses of President Donald Trump's mental health, pointing to a nearly 45-year-old ethical rule preventing mental health professionals from diagnosing public figures they have not personally evaluated.

The "Goldwater rule" was implemented by APA in 1973 and named for an infamous incident roughly a decade earlier in which a magazine polled psychiatrists about whether former presidential candidate Barry Goldwater was psychologically fit for office. Similar concerns have been raised about Trump, especially after the publication of the book "Fire and Fury," which paints the president's mental stability in unflattering terms.

APA had previously cautioned members against publicly diagnosing the mental health of Trump or former Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton. It once again issued a warning Tuesday, saying "armchair psychiatry or the use of psychiatry as a political tool is the misuse of psychiatry and is unacceptable and unethical."

The Goldwater rule "guides physician members of the APA to refrain from publicly issuing professional medical opinions about individuals that they have not personally evaluated in a professional setting or context. Doing otherwise undermines the credibility and integrity of the profession and the physician-patient relationship," the association said. http://bit.ly/2D0tQjs

Two psychologists pushed back against APA in a column for Politico Magazine. Brandy Lee and Leonard Glass claimed they and other psychologists were not violating the Goldwater rule because they were not diagnosing Trump's personal issues, just his traits in regard to public office.

"Any president's mental health is inextricably tied to our health as a society, and, in this case, Trump's mental state poses a serious danger that we must be willing to discuss and address," the psychiatrists said.

Glass said he had resigned from APA in protests of the group's interpretation of the Goldwater rule while Lee left because of the association's alleged ties to the pharmaceutical industry. http://politi.co/2ExVQYJ

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