Abstract
Double Bill: fetish and fame
Beginning a new year is somewhat like starting a new book. There is an intangible sense of anticipation, which, coupled with the smell of new pages, suitably primes the senses and creates a modicum of fetishistic excitement. The first few pages of a book are critical because they introduce the principal themes and provide a glimpse of the discourse ahead. For example, I am currently reading Shakespeare by Bill Bryson (Bryson, 2009). He begins enigmatically with the sentence, ‘Before he came into a lot of money in 1839, Richard Plantagenet Temple Nugent Brydges Chandos Grenville, second Duke of Buckingham and Chandos, led a largely uneventful life’. The book is riveting and provides an erudite account of the many quests for the true identity of William Shakespeare, about whom surprisingly little is known. The opening sentence mockingly contrasts a person with a surfeit of names, who managed to sink quickly into obscurity accomplishing little, with Shakespeare, whose immense achievements ensure that his literary fame is unrivalled despite his true identity remaining a mystery. This opening sentence also highlights Bryson’s whimsy, and each of the book’s 200 pages is enlivened by his wit. However, my opinion is not without subjectivity given that I am a Bill-eber (of both Bryson and the ‘Sheik’).
In recent years, the ANZJP has also been on a quest to redefine its personality. Gradually its identity has been transformed through changes to layout and content, and the introduction of new concepts and ideas.
‘New Here’ in the Journal
Following on from the very successful DSM Digest series, which coincided with the 2013 release of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition (DSM-5) (and which will continue to run throughout 2014), in the New Year we will gradually turn our attention to the International Classification of Diseases, 11th Revision (ICD-11). The latter is due to be released in 2015, and so the Journal will regularly feature correspondence and perspectives on proposed ICD-11 developments. The aim is to highlight and discuss any potential changes and possibly to make suggestions as to what ICD-11 should contain, with the aim of improving upon DSM-5. Given that the changes in ICD-11 will be those that are anticipated, and recommendations made by authors will essentially be proposals and predictions, the ANZJP Commentaries in ICD-11 will be termed ICD Insights.
In recent years, the quality of articles published in ANZJP has perceptibly improved and so, to provide an extra tier of distinction, two initiatives will be introduced in 2014. First, outstanding reviews, and those that are deemed to be particularly important clinically or for research, will be assigned the title Key Review. This will be signified in the article header and also made clear by inserting a Key Review ANZJP logo (see Figure 1) on the front page. The authors of Key Reviews will be ‘rewarded’ by having their article more openly and widely distributed. Our publisher, Sage, will also promote them, both online and at international meetings. So as not to disadvantage ‘high achievers’ in other forms of writing, a similar strategy will be applied to other types of article. These will be recognised as Editor’s Choice and branded accordingly. Again, this will be accompanied by greater visibility, both online and in hard copy, and these pieces will receive additional promotion.
Key Review logo.
The Journal will continue to publish high-quality research alongside informative reviews, topped and tailed by interesting perspectives and correspondence, respectively. The Key Reviews and Editor’s Choice articles will assist busy clinicians and academics with specialised interests who, faced with an embarrassment of riches, may not have the luxury of reading the Journal cover to cover. They will serve to identify the ‘must read’ pieces in every issue: in other words, the articles without which your cup of knowledge will fail to reach the brim.
The issue at hand
Always striving to address new topics and never fearing to traverse dangerous ground, this month’s issue features a series of Viewpoints on the Australian Royal Commission into institutional abuse (Middleton et al, 2014a; 2014b). These scholarly articles provide a gripping account of many of the key issues, deftly interwoven with strong opinions. The resulting narrative clearly makes these page-turners. In the Review section, two detailed and comprehensive articles consider aspects of emotional regulation and the experience of emotion in a variety of psychiatric disorders (Garfield et al., 2014; Van Rheenen and Rossell, 2014). Research articles in this issue examine a number of interesting aspects of psychiatry, including the determinants of high rates of smoking in those who have psychosis and are residing in socially disadvantaged circumstances (Hahn et al., 2014). Attention on psychosis continues in a literacy article by Reavely et al. (2014) and a 5-year comparison study that closely examines antipsychotic pharmacy and high-dose prescription in schizophrenia (Roh et al., 2014). A topical article by McDermott and colleagues (2014) examines the correlates of post-traumatic symptoms in children and adolescents following a cyclone disaster, and the need for understanding causality is echoed in the commentary by Levy, who urges a biopsychosocial formulation of autism spectrum disorders (Levy, 2014), a discussion to which Starling contributes by arguing a case against the perception that we are over-diagnosing autism (Starling, 2014).
John Cade: for he’s a jolly good fellow
The Editorial in this New Year’s issue explains the background to the John Cade Fellowships awarded by the National Health and Medical Research Council through a competitive process in 2013. Two articles authored by the two recipients of the Fellowships, Professors John McGrath and Helen Christensen, follow this, briefly outlining their respective proposed plans over the coming 5 years (Christensen, 2014; McGrath, 2014).
Jointly, these two leading lights of Australian psychiatry will no doubt illuminate the way forward, and their proposed decade of research is to be applauded both for its vision and ambition.
In this same vein, the ANZJP New Year’s resolution is to continue to feature cutting-edge research, informative clinical advice and thought-provoking ideas.