EDITORIAL
A year of achievements
This issue marks the end of a year which, for us at the Revista de Psiciatria do Rio Grande do Sul, was replete with satisfaction, achievements and objectives fulfilled. This year we maintained the high level of the quality of our articles and also the regularity of our publication, we continued to follow a pluralist editorial policy (which has been the trademark of the Revista since its foundation) and we are still indexed in the principal international research databases. Indeed, we went further: this year our Revista started to be published in its entirety in English (in its electronic form on the SciELO website); we renewed parts of our Editorial and Consultative Boards and we were able to celebrate, importantly, the 25th anniversary of uninterrupted publication of the Revista (with an excellent scientific and social event and a commemorative edition that was a source of pride to us all). Thus, we round off 2004 completely satisfied with the work that has been done and prepared to, in 2005, continue along the ascendant trajectory that the high scientific level of our Revista has been following.
The current issue, once more brings to our readers articles dealing with a wide range of themes relevant to current psychiatric practice. We present five original articles. The first, by Norbert and Alejandra Marucco, from Argentina, focuses on the question of power in current analytic practice. The authors offer highly original ideas and discuss situations in which abuse of power on the part of the analyst during the analytical process. The second article, by our colleague Gustavo Turecki's team from Canada, deals, by means of a sample of 168 suicide cases, the intriguing relationship between suicide and the absence of an Axis I diagnosis, and call attention to the fact that the psychological autopsy method used in these cases can fail to detect certain subjacent psychiatric processes commonly present in suicidal patients. The third original article, by Ygor Ferrão et al., describes the clinical characteristics and family histories of 111 patients with obsessive-compulsive disorders selected from patients at the Hospital Presidente Vargas, in Porto Alegre. This is another fundamental article in the sense that Brazilian publications are making space for the description of the characteristics of the populations cared for. The fourth paper is another article along the same lines, in which characteristics peculiar to our population are described. In this article, Primo & Stein perform a cross-sectional, population-based study of 1,044 individuals in order to identify the prevalence of alcoholism in the city of Rio Grande (Rio Grande do Sul State), calling attention to the difficulties involved in performing population studies of alcoholism and the important prevalence of 5.5% of alcohol abuse and 2.5% of dependence in the population studied. The fifth and final original article, by Camargo & Contel, reaffirms the role of our Revista in providing a privileged space for the publication of instruments adapted for our language. In addition to describing the rigorous methodology used for the translation and adaptation of questionnaires for evaluating skills and knowledge in psychiatric practice, the article makes a very rich and interesting instrument for the investigation of both the practice and teaching of psychiatry available to our readers.
It is not by chance that the three review articles deal with depressive disorders, a theme that is ever more relevant in psychiatric practice. The first article, by Spanemberg & Juruena, is an excellent review of the historical and nosological characteristics of dysthymia and its relation to major depressive disorder. The second article, by Zimmermann, Carvalho & Mari, deals with the issue of depression and other psychosocial factors that can influence the progress of patients suffering from chronic kidney disease, a theme that is very important, in particular to those who work with psychiatric consultation-liaison. The third review article, by Júlia Trevisan, deals with the theme of depression under the lens of the role of analysis-oriented psychotherapy in cases of difficult to treat depression.
We present two case histories. One is by Mariana Eizerik & Bergman and deals with the repercussions of father absence and its impact of the development of children and adolescents. This perspective is very important and, very often, forgotten in the rush to value the importance of maternal absence. The other case description, by Horimoto, Ayache & Juberty de Souza, studies depression secondary to the use of interferon and treatment with a new antidepressant escitalopran. Our Revista continues to be a channel that is open for colleagues to publish their case histories, and, therefore, we proclaim our desire that our readers continue to send us situations that have occurred in their daily clinical practice.
We round off this issue publishing three book reviews which are evidence of the current richness in book publication in brazil. The first, by Rogéria Recondo, describes the book by Diogo Lara entitled Temperamento forte e bipolaridade: dominando os altos e baixos do humor. The second review, by José Carlos de Souza, deals with the extremely important theme of suicide, covered in the book Tentativa de suicídio um prisma para a compreensão da adolescência, by Enio Resmini. The last review, also by José Carlos de Souza, deals with electroconvulsive therapy based on the book by Sérgio Rigonatti, Moacyr Rosa & Marina Rosa.
We present, therefore, a pluralist journal with original data from samples of Brazilian patients with review articles dealing with themes relevant to daily psychiatric practice, with rich case histories reviews of books produced by Brazilian colleagues from a number of different regions. For all of these reasons, we are certain our colleagues will be satisfied with what we are offering in this issue.
An excellent read to all.
Flávio Shansis and Jacó Zaslavsky
Editors
Publication Dates
-
Publication in this collection
14 Sept 2005 -
Date of issue
Dec 2004
