Advances in Psychiatry

This book consists of a report of activities of the sections of the World Psychiatric Association. These reports were put together on the occasion of the XII World Congress of Psychiatry held in Yokohama, Japan, in August 2002. The purpose was to provide the field at large with a summary of the most relevant and up-to-date advances in the different sectors of psychiatry during the last triennium.

Without question, this aim is quite ambitious, and in many ways the book needs to be recognized as a very laudable scientific effort on the part of the editor, Dr. Christodoulou. Unfortunately, not all of the reports in the 32 sections achieve the scientific rigor expected from a project of this magnitude and relevance. Some of the reports, however, are excellent and meet expectations quite well. This is the first time that such a project was entertained by the World Psychiatric Association. One hopes that future efforts of this type will lead to a continuous improvement of the quality of the section reports. Of potential benefit would be to structure the reports in such a way that the individual authors must, for example, use citations of investigational studies and/or reviews published during the last 3-year period, define and summarize the five most important advances that occurred during the last 3-year period, and focus only on what can be demonstrated by the evidence.

What I found most useful in this book is the opportunity that it offers the busy practitioner or clinician for a quick review of some of the most relevant issues in a large spectrum of areas in the field of psychiatry. I should add, however, that this book is of limited value to the sophisticated researcher or scholar. An additional benefit of this book is the recognition of an extensive group of collaborators representing all geographical areas and schools of thought throughout the world. This, in itself, is a major success. Moreover, it represents a wealth of intellectual resources that, if appropriately channeled, could lead to unlimited and outstanding scientific contributions in the areas of research, education, and clinical practice.

I hope that this book will evolve into a series that is produced every 3 years. I also hope that its editor will excel in the formulation and structuring of this book. I found this book very useful for psychiatric residents and plan to use it accordingly.