APPI to Unveil Major Online Psychiatry Resource

If your computer is essential to your professional life as a psychiatrist, here's the online information service you've been waiting for. And even if you've joined the world of bits and bytes only in starts and fits, this service promises to convert you to the benefits of cyberspace in no time—with no looking back.

That service is PsychiatryOnline, a collection of up-to-the-minute psychiatric resources available by subscription from American Psychiatric Publishing Inc. (APPI). Its centerpiece is the DSM library, which includes DSM-IV-TR, case studies, and the Handbook of Differential Diagnosis.

PsychiatryOnline will be demonstrated during APA's 2005 annual meeting in the APPI Bookstore in the Georgia World Congress Center.

Along with the DSM library, PsychiatryOnline gives access to the full set of APA's practice guidelines, available in both comprehensive and quick-reference formats. As APA approves new and revised practice guidelines, they'll be added to the site, and subscribers will receive alerts about significant developments and revisions. APA's recently approved Practice Guideline for the Treatment of Patients With Acute Stress Disorder and Posttraumatic Stress Disorder, not available in print compendiums, will be available at PsychiatryOnline.

Moreover, the site features APPI's leading journals, including the American Journal of Psychiatry, and books, such as the fourth edition of Hales and Yudofsky's Textbook of Clinical Psychiatry, which offers integrated foundations in both psychology and neuroscience.

PsychiatryOnline is also an indispensable “lifelong learning” center for preparing for board certification and recertification exams and for earning CME credit. A self-assessment section allows you to create your own exam from the question-and-answer companion to the Textbook of Clinical Psychiatry. Your score is calculated and returned immediately with a detailed explanation and topic-specific hot links to recommended readings for additional study.

The PsychiatryOnline interface allows you to execute a single search and get results in both books and journals. All resources are cross-referenced—that is, every section you view online is accompanied by a “See Also” box that directs you to pertinent related material. For example, when you review a diagnosis in DSM, you can quickly connect to related material in the APA practice guidelines and the most recent research findings in the the American Journal of Psychiatry and other APA journals. References to journal material not located in PsychiatryOnline will lead you to the article via PubMed.

PsychiatryOnline gives you information accessibility while on the move. Not only can you use it from any computer, but you can download any section of any publication on the site to your PDA. You also get access to full PDA versions of three key titles: Quick Reference to the Diagnostic Criteria From DSM-IV-TR, Handbook of Differential Diagnosis, and Quick Reference to the APA Practice Guidelines. A custom index of your downloads is automatically generated on your PDA, enabling you to organize your downloads and quickly jump to the topic one you want.

If you don't want to wait for your PsychiatryOnline demonstration at the annual meeting, you can view a site demo and purchase a subscription beginning in April at<www.psychiatryonline.com>.

Two subscription packages are available for individuals: “DSM Premium” gives access to all publications, and “DSM Premium Plus” adds enhanced PDA access to the basic package. Fee information is posted at the PsychiatryOnline Web site; APA members receive a substantial discount. ▪