Dear Colleagues:

Welcome to the November issue of Psychiatry 2010. We start this issue with Trend Watch. In this month’s installment, the authors explore trends in prescribing habits of physicians for atypical antipsychotics to treat dementia following the United States Food and Drug Administration advisory safety warning issued in April 2005. An expert commentary on the data is provided by Ipsit V. Vahia, MD, and Dilip V. Jeste, MD—both from the University of California, San Diego.

Next, in this month’s installment of The Interface, Sansone and Sansone explore the literature regarding the impact the feeling of gratitude has on an individual’s overall sense of well being. The authors review and discuss the literature regarding this connection as well as review methods of assessment and therapeutic enhancement of gratitude.

Following this, Macfadden et al test the hypothesis that long-term maintenance with injectable risperidone long-acting therapy is superior to oral daily aripiprazole in stable patients with schizophrenia in a two-year, rater-blinded, open-label, multicenter study. While the results of this study failed to demonstrate superiority with injectable risperidone long-acting therapy versus oral aripiprazole, the study design problems encountered by the investigators and their discussion of these problems in the article make this an important publication and should be carefully considered by other researchers when designing future comparative studies of long-acting and oral treatments.

Next, I call your attention to an invitation to our readers to participate in a Scientific Forum on the DSM-V. Aboraya kicks off the forum by summarizing the phases of psychiatric classification from the turn of the 20th century until today. We invite readers to submit comments, recommendations, and articles regarding DSM-V to Psychiatry 2010 and DSM-V Task Force. Please see Aboraya’s commentary for instructions on participating.

Following this, Sanders and Gillig review the basic brain mechanisms of voluntary motor activity, the most useful pyramidal tract or upper motor neuron signs, and their relevance to specific patient groups of interest to psychiatrists in this month’s Psychiatry and Neurology article.

Next, Kate et al present two cases of treatment-resistant depression in patients who were vegetarians that improved with recognition and correction of the underlying medical etiology of vitamin B12 deficiency.

We wrap up this issue with two interesting columns. First, Ms. Neal provides her insight on how to manage the ethical dilemma of whether or not to report a patient to the Department of Motor Vehicles when the patient’s ability to drive safely is under question. And finally, Dr. Meymandi provides us with some food for thought regarding human nature and poses the question, “Humanity, what will you choose—ominous impotence or omnipotence?”

Sincerely,
Amir Kalali, MD
Editor,  Psychiatry 2010