In recent years, the impact of deindustrialization, technological advances, and escalating costs of care has brought about immense changes in Canadian psychiatric practice. In addition, Canada -- like most other countries -- faces the challenge of providing accessible, effective, humane, and cost-efficient health care in the midst of downsizing, restrictions, and cutbacks. Images in Psychiatry: Canada outlines the historical development of psychiatry in Canada; highlights various aspects of current psychiatric practice, both in general and in highly specialized areas; and traces research development foci of Canadian endeavor. The contributors, a group of nationally and internationally recognized practitioners, provide not only an overview of the current situation but also informed predictions concerning the future of Canadian psychiatry.
Introduction. Canada: images in psychiatry. History of psychiatry in
Canada. Services. General hospital psychiatry. Child and adolescent
psychiatry. Infant psychiatry. Developmental disabilities. Forensic
psychiatry. Geriatric psychiatry. Consultation-liaison psychiatry. Rural
psychiatry. Addiction psychiatry and management of substance-related
disorders. Suicidology. Native issues. Women's issues in psychiatry: putting
social context into psychiatric practice. Diagnostic classification. Cultural
psychiatry. Prevention. Psychotherapies. Somatic treatments
(electroconvulsive therapy). Community psychiatry. Legislative issues and
their impact on psychiatry. Relationships between psychiatrists and other
mental health care providers. Psychiatry's relationships with service and
educational organizations. Financing of health care services. Bioethics
research: contributions to and from psychiatry. Education. Academic
departments of psychiatry. Undergraduate, postgraduate, and continuing
medical education. Research. Personality disorders. Mood disorders. Sleep and
biological rhythms research and sleep medicine. Epidemiology. Schizophrenia.
Eating disorders. Psychopharmacology. Dementia. Genetics. Imaging. Anxiety
disorders. Child psychiatry. Funding in clinical trials. The future of
Canadian psychiatry. Index.
Quentin Rae-Grant, M.B., Ch.B., F.R.C.P.C., F.R.C.Psych., is Professor Emeritus in the Department of Psychiatry, University of Western Ontario in London, Ontario, Canada.
