2006 in Review

摘要

The first article is an example of our publication of epidemiological studies that calibrate the practice of psychiatry. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) was told last spring by a prominent cardiologist that a doctor's hand should tremble when he or she writes a prescription for stimulants for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) because of the possibility of severe cardiac side effects. The specters of iatrogenic addiction and the indiscriminant use of psychotropic drugs to enhance school performance were raised. This study, which was scheduled for publication several months later, showed that the prescription of stimulants to children has been remarkably stable over the past decade and that, if anything, too few children are treated. The final version of the April issue had already gone to our printer the morning that we decided that this article needed to be published sooner than its scheduled time. Fortunately, because the printers were at lunch and work had not yet started we could hold the issue for this article. Our professional editorial staff, who are listed on the masthead, are marvelous; they worked quickly with the authors to get the text ready for printing. The only article that we could displace immediately was a review article by Kenneth Kendler, M.D., who told us that the needs of children should come first. The article appeared while the FDA hearings were ongoing, and the FDA decided not to issue a more severe warning about the safety and use of drugs that have a unique value in the treatment of childhood mental disorder.