A Dickens of a Year

FROM THE CHAIRMAN

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair.” – Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities

The year 2020 will go down in the history books as a period of unusual and challenging times. Nevertheless, as H. Steven Moffic, MD, and our editor in chief, John J. Miller, MD, point out in their respective articles in this issue, it was a year of opportunities, growth, bravery, and renewed commitment.

The Special Report on Cognition hints at that just that. Horacio A. Capote, MD, Special Report chair, notes that despite much progress in treating the core symptoms of serious mental illness, cognitive issues sometimes get overlooked. Addressing these lingering problems improves patients’ quality of life, he adds. After all, everyone is trying to make sense of the world, even (or especially) in the year 2020. To better support you and your patients, Hartej Gill; Roger S. McIntyre, MD, FRCPC; Chris Aiken, MD; and Brian Miller, MD, explore ways to assess and address the cognitive deficits that often accompany psychiatric illnesses.

Throughout this troubled year, we have learned so much that will allow us to improve ourselves and our world, as well as patients with psychiatric disorders. To that end, Yujuan Choy, MD, shares lessons gleaned from the pandemic in hopes of helping her colleagues better assist patients as the pandemic evolves. Similarly, the Schizophrenia in the News feature offers a reminder that moving the research agenda forward has remained a priority, with a better understanding of psychiatric illnesses and novel agents to treat psychiatric disorders in the works.

Dickens’ sentiments seem to ring true, but perhaps he understood only part of it. It is not that the glass is half empty or even that it is half full. Instead, the glass is vast—and that requires us to work harder to find ways to keep it filled. At Psychiatric Times^TM, our goal is to keep filling your cup of knowledge with a plethora of important, interesting, and useful clinical information to best enlighten you as you care for your patients.

With that, we wish you and yours a joyous holiday season and hopes for a happy, healthy, and fulfilling 2021! ❒

Mike Hennessy Sr

Chairman and Founder, MJH Life Sciences^TM