EU_Psych_foreword 26/6/08 09:39 Page 6
Foreword
George Christodoulou
Director, World Federation for Mental Health (WFMH)
George Christodoulou is Director of the World Federation for Mental Health (WFMH), a Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Athens, a
Fellow of the Royal College of Psychiatrists (RCP) and Chair of the RCP’s European Division. He is also Honorary President of the Hellenic
Psychiatric Association, President of the International College of Psychosomatic Medicine (ICPM) and President of the Psychiatric Association
of Eastern Europe and the Balkans. Professor Christodoulou is also Chair, Secretary and an Honorary Fellow of the World Psychiatric
Association (WPA), for which he has also served as Chair of the Institutional Programme on Disasters and Mental Health and as Chair of the
Standing Committee on Ethics.
P
sychiatry has developed at a slower pace than other medical disciplines, for diverse reasons. Theological and
demonocratic influences, prejudice against psychiatric patients and their carers, the predominance of neurology
in the mixed neurology–psychiatry speciality, social resistance and uncertainty and misunderstandings concerning the
aetiology of psychiatric disorders are just some causes.
Nonetheless, in the last century psychiatry has made tremendous progress and some of its original principles – such as
holism, the psychosomatic and person-centred therapeutic approach – have infiltrated not only psychological medicine
but also the wider medical field. The development of psychiatric departments in general hospitals has brought psychiatry
closer to the rest of medicine, and community psychiatry has liberated the field from its preoccupation with psychotic
patients and mental asylums. Additionally, feedback and provision of information from the basic sciences has proved very
productive, as has modern technology in the research and management of psychiatric disorders.
This inaugural volume of European Psychiatric Review reflects the progress outlined above in a variety of fields, ranging
from genetics and classification to the provision of psychiatric services in Europe. For what it is meant to be – a review –
it is an asset. The list of topics is not, and could not be, exhaustive; however, the publication covers a broad range of
crucial issues in psychiatry, among which are attention-deficit–hyperactivity disorder, a syndrome that has appeared in
recent years but has existed without a name for much longer; autism; the two major psychiatric nosological entities –
schizophrenia and affective disorders; and genetic issues.
The unifying element in this compilation of articles is that the authors of the vast majority of papers come from and work
in Europe. So, in this sense, the title is justified. However, the presented studies and the expressed positions are relevant
to psychiatry as a whole and are by no means restricted by geographical limitations. This is yet another asset.
I feel confident that this important edition will increase our knowledge and promote mental health on our continent and
across the rest of the world. ■
6 © TOUCH BRIEFINGS 2008
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