First Anniversary of PsychiatryTalk.com

The following originally appeared on Psychiatry Talk.

I started PsychiatryTalk a little more than one year ago and it has been an interesting experience for me. I have met people from around the world via this blog and it is very gratifying to see the number of hits on it to continue to grow. Initially, there would be an average of 25 pages /day that were read. Now it is well over 300/day and growing. I originally thought that the blog would generate online discussion. I was surprised to find that readers are reluctant to put comments on the blog itself, although many people will write to me or people whom I know will speak with me in person about various subjects about which I have written. I still encourage any readers to put comments directly on the blog in the comments section and they will be posted usually within a day or two. It is easier for me to write the blog every other week rather than weekly so I have recently switched to biweekly postings.

I thought that this might be a good time to report some follow-up on various blogs which I have written.

The first blog that I wrote on October 12, 2009 was Review of Fox TV Show Mental. It was a critique of a new television show which was about a psychiatrist. In my opinion, the program lacked authenticity and missed the opportunity to depict psychiatry and mental illness in a realistic manner. The show was not renewed. There is an excellent program about a psychotherapist on HBO titled In Treatment which just began it’s third season. It stars Gabriel Byrne as Dr. Paul Weston who has weekly sessions with patients , including one with his own therapist. This is a scripted show and although the writing is quite good, it is fiction based on a similar Israeli TV show. I believe that it would be possible to develop a high quality reality tv show of an actual ongoing therapy which could not only show real therapy sessions but also allow for interesting discussion by experts. There would be some ethical considerations in doing it which but I believe could be overcome and it could be done in a thoughtful manner.

The second blog on October 19^th was titled When a Mother Kills Her Children. It was about post partum psychosis with a discussion of the Proposed bill before the US Congress tiltled the Melanie Stokes Mothers Act . I am pleased to say that in March of 2010 it was passed and signed by the President. This legislation will establish a comprehensive federal commitment to combating postpartum depression through new research, education initiatives and voluntary support service programs.

In December 2009 I first wrote a blog Condolence for Soldier Suicide where I made the case that it was wrong for the President of the United States not to write a letter of condolence to the families of American soldiers who have died by suicide. Another blog was written on this subject in August 2010 titled We Can’t Avoid PTSD and Suicides . While the President has still not changed his policy, the Secretary of the Army has recently written to some of the families and expressed his regret on the death of the soldiers. Perhaps this may be a sign of things to come. I authored an Action Paper with Dr. Roger Peele of Washington D.C. requesting the Assembly of the American Psychiatric Association to ask the President to reconsider his policy on this issue. It was passed by the APA Assembly and also endorsed by the Board of Trustees of the APA . This makes it the policy of our 38,000 psychiatrists organization. In addition Mental Health America and the American Foundation for the Prevention of Suicide has passed similar resolutions and also are in the process of gathering signature for a petition to President Obama. I believe we are getting closer to this long over due recognition to the families of these soldiers.

Another important military issue and human rights issue was discussed in the February 2010 blog titled Abolishing Don’t Ask Don’t Tell (DADT). Polls have consistently shown a majority of the public supports letting gays serve, and Defense Secretary Robert Gates and top military commanders such as Admiral Mike Mullen have recently endorsed it. In September 56 Democratic senators voted for the defense authorization bill, which included DADT repeal, but the measure failed to achieve the 60 votes needed to overcome a Republican filibuster. A recent study conducted by the Pentagon concluded that ” …while a repeal of DADT will likely in the short term bring out some limited and isolated disruption to unit cohesion and retention, we do not believe this disruption will be widespread or long-lasting, and can be adequately addressed. The report, based on responses from 115,000 service members and 44,266 spouses, includes interviews with former gay or lesbian service members, some of whom were discharged from the military under the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy. Of those surveyed, 69 percent said they had served with a gay service member and 92 percent of those respondents said they were able to work together.Fifty to 55 percent of those surveyed said the repeal won’t have any effect, 15 to 20 percent said it would have a positive effect and 30 percent said the effect would be negative.The report went on to say that “The reality is that there are gay men and lesbians already serving in today’s U.S. military and most service members recognize this,” the report states. “Much of the concern about open service is driven by misperceptions and stereotypes about what it would mean.”I still like the words of Barry Goldwater on this issue who said, ” It is not important if your are straight , just that you can shoot straight.”

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whether there should be law where stockholders,not Board of Directors of Compensation Committees, should be required to approve any compensation packages more than 200 times the minimum wage in the US. That controversy seems to have been revived just this past month when compensation at Wall Street firms was reported to be expected to hit $144 million. A column in the Wall ll Street Journal raised the question I brought up that since the 2008 financial crisis profits remain 20% below the 2006 level while the pay at these firms rose an astonishing 23 % over that time frame, shouldn’t the owners of these firms be the ones to decide if they want to spend their money raising the compensation of their executives. ?

The May 12^th 2010 blog titled Autism & FragileX- New Treatment has become the most looked at blog of PsychiatryTalk of the year so far. In it, two new research projects concerning Autism Spectrum Disorder and Fragile X Syndrome are briefly reviewed. In the first, a random controlled study of children with Autism Spectrum showed that the Early Start Denver Model showed statistically improvement over a control group in regard to intellectual development and adaptive behavior. In the second study, preliminary research showed that a new medication improved behavior associated with Fragile X Syndrome compared to the control group. There is also some belief that such medication would be effective with children with Autism Spectrum. As a followup I don’t find any announcements of new breakthrough research. However, there is a $211 million HHS-wide initiative that would invest an additional $1 billion over the next eight years in autism related activities, the NIH budget includes $141 million in FY 2010 for research into the causes of and treatments for autism spectrum disorders (ASD). The funded research will include identifying biomarkers; improving ASD screening; establishing ASD registries; understanding genetic and environmental risk factors, as well as interactions between the immune and central nervous systems; and enhancing services that can help people with ASD across the lifespan.

Also in May I wrote two blogs addressing financial issues in the American Psychiatric Association and they were Impact of APA Budget Cuts and Increase APA Budget $1.5 Miilion. In the the former I discussed the expected impact of the cuts on the APA Assembly and APA Components particularly the Communications Committee and the Disaster Committee. In the second blog I outlined several specific suggestions how I felt that the APA could gain this large increase in it’s budget. Certainly the APA continues as a very vigorous organization representing 38,000 psychiatrist and speaking out on important issues concerning mental health. It is still too early to determine if the cutbacks will seriously hinder it in it’s effectiveness. I understand that some of my suggestions are being considered by some of the leadership but as far as I know no steps have been taken to implement any of them

In a July 14^th blog titled I would Like to Thank My Psychiatrist It was stated that Los Angeles Laker Ron Artest after his team won the NBA Championship thanked his psychiatrist on national television. This is was noted to be example how an increasing number celebrities are comfortable publicly discussing their psychiatric history. Television programs, movies, the Internet and the new media have all contributed to the reduction of stigma about mental health problems and treatment. My colleague Bill Arroyo informed me that Artest was mistaken in that his therapist was not a psychiatrist but another mental health professional. While I appreciate the correction, the changing attitudes towards discussing therapy still holds and is a good trend.

Last month I wrote my first blog on Miners in Chile anticipating any psychological issues that people who have gone through a traumatic event may experience. As the miners began to emerge from the successful rescue efforts asecond blog was written in conjunction with a blog that I wrote for CNN.com which I suggest that in this situation I believe that resiliency will be the default and most if not all of these miners will not have any long lasting psychological effects. In fact this brush with death may end up being a positive experience for them. It is obviously too early to tell but it is very gratifying to see the good feeling around the world for these miners. However, just recently 29 miners died in an explosion in New Zealand and we are reminded how such tragedies occur all the time and so cause great mental anguish for so many people. In this regard still another report of a recent tragedy caught my eye and that was the traumatic event in Cambodia where more more than 378 people died and hundreds more were injured in a stampede at the end of the annual Water Festival late Monday in Phnom Penh. So many of these victims were young people , many in their teens. I hope that there are mental health professionals and others available to help the survivors, families and friends deal with their grief.

Needless to say, I am still enthused about continuing this blog. I do appreciate the growing readership and I would want to encourage each of you to feel free to comment directly on the blog with your own views are particular topics. Whenever I have had occasion to give a talk whether it has been at a national meeting, a Grand Rounds or even a local group, I am always very pleased if there are 25 people in the audience, as it is privilege to share my interest with others. So it becomes a special opportunity to use the Internet to reach much larger numbers throughout the world through this wonderful medium. Thank you all for your continued interest.