Abstract
This is essentially a selective compendium of abstracts from the professional literature over the proceeding 12 months. Fifty-eight journals are represented in this volume, of which 21 are specifically psychiatric journals.
The Medical Journal of Australia is included, but not the journal of the Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists.
The book is divided into eight chapters, on child and adolescent psychiatry, psychotherapy, alcohol and substance related disorders, psychiatry and the law, community psychiatry, clinical psychiatry, biological psychiatry and psychopharmacology. The distinction between chapters appears somewhat arbitrary. Many topics are represented across several chapters.
Each chapter is fully handled by one of the seven editors, who has selected and reviewed every article included, and contributed a brief introduction.
The articles themselves are taken from journals published in 2001/2002.
There is no mention of selection criteria and it is difficult to assess potential sources of selection bias without knowing more about the background of the editors, though they are all well known and eminent in their field. I was happy with the articles selected in chapters of particular interest to me.
Each article is represented by a structured abstract, taken directly from the journal, followed by a brief commentary which mostly restates the major findings, addresses the merits of the article and attempts to place it in current context. The quickest way to read this book is to select a chapter of interest, skim-read the commentaries and then read the full abstract when something takes your interest.
As might be expected, there is a degree of consistency in tone in the commentaries within each chapter and some editors are more idiosyncratic than others. Unfortunately, the commentaries have little critical review of the methodology, so the reader must take it on trust that the editor has selected wisely. There is also no attempt to assign research articles within the Cochran Collaboration Project levels of evidence hierarchy. With the exception of the chapter on psychotherapy, the reviewer's comments are markedly uncritical of the papers selected.
Aside from these objections, this is a very useful and efficient way to cover a whole year of the scientific literature in the major fields in psychiatry. It is no substitute for reading original articles, but few people have the time or resources to cover so many journals. It might be of particular interest to registrars preparing for exams. Major alternatives to this book would be Current opinion in psychiatry, and Journal watch psychiatry.