I am impressed by the review by Brian Cooper of psychiatry in Britain.1 He is an erstwhile colleague of mine. As a Professor of Psychiatric Epidemiology he gave it forensic attention. I have been in psychiatry since 1964, and have been an academic in London, Hobart, Toronto, and St Louis. Latterly, I have been a clinician in Plymouth. I have to say that my English experience in recent years has been disappointing and unexciting. Professor Cooper talks of the decline of psychiatry as a medical career and he is absolutely right. As said, it is not recruiting sufficient British graduates. Furthermore, the situation is becoming unacceptable as the subject is thought of by some as an odd specialty. However, before all is lost we need to remember certain epidemiological facts. One in five people in the UK and other countries will develop an affective disorder (anxiety and depression) during their lifetimes; and the World Health Organization has predicted that by 2020 depressive illness will be the commonest medical condition in the world. So let us get serious.
Footnotes
Competing interests None declared
References
- 1.Cooper B . British psychiatry and its discontents . J R Soc Med 2010. ;103 :397 –402 [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]