Articles Should Reflect Psychiatry's Contributions

To the Editor: Psychiatry as a practice is under attack. We face challenges perhaps no other discipline of medicine is undergoing.The recent legislative manipulation in Louisiana is, I believe, the best example.

With this in mind, we hadbest be on our toes. Our journal articles should call attention to the contribution our field makes to the alleviation of human suffering.Alas, I am dismayed by the recent article, "Reactions of Staff Members to the Relocation of a Psychiatric Department to a New Building," in the June issue of Psychiatric Services (1). By theend of the day, how many children will receive a diagnosis of debilitating obsessive-compulsive disorder? How manyother patients will have their first break of psychosis? Ostensibly, human suffering will, like it does every day, march on.Now more than ever, we as psychiatrists need to focus on our role as medical doctors diagnosing and treating pathologies that plague and cripple our patients.Our journals should reflect these efforts—not the trials and tribulations of "moving."

Let's take ourselves seriously, and others will follow.

Dr. Massa is in private practice in Chicago.