Primary Care and Psychiatry: The Dawning of a New Year

Abstract

With this issue we celebrate the start of The Primary Care Companion to The Journal of Clinical Psychiatry's 11th year! The articles published in this issue reflect the challenges facing primary care clinicians aspiring to truly integrate care of mind and body. Demyttenaere and colleagues provide insight into primary care physician and patient perspectives on treatment outcomes, highlighting the fact that although improvement in nonspecific pain is an important contributor to overall outcome for patients, it is often underappreciated by their physicians. An understanding of the frequency of illness, the characteristics of patients affected, and the expected evolution of their disease processes is critical to the work of primary care. It is the basis for our rapid recognition of illness and our ability to provide patients and families with not only a diagnosis but also a prognosis. Our Rounds in the General Hospital presentation addresses a related issue—the relationship of visual hallucinations with mental disorders and how they can be treated. The integration of mental and physical care by primary care physicians also requires an understanding of the effects of psychiatric conditions and their treatments on medical conditions. Two articles in this issue address this area: Melanie L. Zupancic, M.D., reviews our understanding of the relationship between acute psychological stress and acute coronary syndromes, and Chen et al. investigate the influence of increased prolactin levels on symptoms experienced by olanzapine-treated schizophrenia patients. The role of the clinician interacting with patients and families, and the clinician's own environment and human connections, is also of interest. These topics are addressed by our regular features of the Psychotherapy Casebook and Diary From the Front Lines. These thought-provoking and highly entertaining columns help all of us reflect on how we become intertwined in our patients’ lives, often with major therapeutic effect for both our patients and ourselves. Over the past 10 years, the Companion has grown to have a readership that is global. The immediate free access to full content through the journal's Web site supports this wide readership. The Companion also has become a medium through which the universal nature of the human condition as related to psychiatric care at the primary care level is evident. This is reflected in the international scope of the articles we publish, which have relevance that crosses all borders. Our letters to the editor also add rich insight into patient experience. As the Companion moves into its second decade of publication, we will continue to bring to our readership important new insights and clinical guidance to the care of patients at the interface of primary care and psychiatry. This year, we will add a focus on care of the elderly as well as continue our current content. We also will reorganize our book review section. Deep thanks go out to you our readers and especially to those who have given the Companion the opportunity to review and publish their work. Over the years, we have greatly benefited from the leadership of an Editorial Board that collectively provides expertise in all areas of interest to the Companion. We also have benefited from and extend our appreciation to a dedicated and outstanding group of reviewers. They volunteer considerable time and broad expertise. Their critiques lead to substantial improvement in the science and relevance of the articles we publish.