Informing Our Response to 3 Pandemics

Larry Culpepper, MD

Prim Care Companion CNS Disord 2021;23(1):PCC.21ed02938

To cite: Culpepper L. Informing our response to 3 pandemics. Prim Care Companion CNS Disord. 2021;23(1):PCC.21ed02938.
To share: https://doi.org/10.4088/PCC.21ed02938

The literature about the impact of COVID-19 on primary care and psychiatry—the domain of The Primary Care Companion for CNS Disorders—is growing rapidly. The PCC has published a portfolio of reports on numerous aspects of the pandemic, with an emphasis on including literature from all parts of the globe. These reports have included insightful cases from community, ambulatory, and inpatient settings, as well as articles about psychiatric aspects of social phenomena such as the experiences of migrant workers in India and approaches to their care and the stresses on and responses of health care providers in many different cultures. Authors have shared clinical wisdom about treatment of patients at a time when the science is still emerging. While this has been an important addition to the information that the PCC is providing, I have been impressed that authors have been able to continue research and scholarly activity not related to the pandemic. We welcome and encourage submission of manuscripts that inform our readers to address the myriad issues that arise relevant to the overlap of primary care and psychiatric and neurologic practice.

But, we are experiencing multiple related pandemics in addition to that of COVID-19. In the United States and globally, the second related pandemic, not as well characterized and curiously almost missing from the literature, is that of extremism and related social media–promoted misinformation (otherwise known as “fake truths” or “lies”) that fan conspiracy theories, polarization, and increasingly dangerous social and political movements. We know that patients with psychiatric vulnerabilities may be particularly susceptible to such influences, which also may exacerbate certain psychiatric conditions and affect our patients’ functioning.

A third and unfortunately long-term pandemic of poverty and deprivation has been worsened by the disruptions caused by COVID-19 and those resulting from extremism. These 3 pandemics contribute and exacerbate each other. As health care professionals, and particularly as health care professionals engaged with patients and populations very vulnerable to all 3, we can have a major role in responding to them.

We will continue to accept manuscripts that add new clinically valuable information to the COVID-19 pandemic literature relevant to those with psychiatric conditions. I also invite you to submit manuscripts that consider how the other interrelated pandemics are influencing your patients, your practices, and systems of care. Please share insights that may help others recognize these interrelated pandemics and their effects as well as clinically effective strategies for responding to them so as to minimize the damage they are causing patients with psychiatric disease. As health care professionals, we hold important and potentially influential roles in our societies. Evolving a literature regarding our experiences and insights into how we can provide benefit related to these additional pandemics can help guide and increase the effectiveness of the care we provide.

I am delighted with the new web presence of the PCC. Please explore the new site at Psychiatrist.com/pcc—it is loaded with additional material that you might find valuable, including easy to access CME and news updates.

This past year, we have all benefited from the reviews submitted by our peer reviewers. In a period of great stress and numerous demands, I am particularly appreciative for their time and the thoughtful assessments and manuscript improvements resulting from their service. We are fortunate to be able to draw from generous and expert peer reviewers from around the world. As a way of recognizing their efforts, we now offer CME credit to our peer reviewers; to learn more about the peer review process, please visit Psychiatrist.com/reviewers. I also want to acknowledge the staff at Physician’s Postgraduate Press, Inc., and particularly thank our managing editor, Sallie Gatlin, for the amazing work they have done this past year in the midst of all the turmoil in our collective lives.

Larry Culpepper, MD
Editor in Chief

Circle of Honor

our highest-volume reviewers
Cybele Arsan
Priti Arun
Stanley S. Caroff
Zeina Chemali
Inês Coelho
João Gama Marques
Marta Gómez-Ramiro
Manish Kumar Goyal
Sandeep Grover
Mayank Gupta
Vikas Gupta
Taranjeet S. Jolly
Panagiota Korenis
Souparno Mitra
Mary Seeman
Sonia Shenoy
Shruti Srivastava
Shikha Verma
Thomas Zaubler

Reviewers for the Primary Care Companion for CNS Disorders

January 1, 2020–December 31, 2020
Vishesh Agarwal
Ruchita Agrawal
Hussein Akroos
Yakup Albayrak
Ali Al-Imam
Jitender Aneja
Austin Armstrong
Cybele Arsan
Priti Arun
Alëna Balasanova
Anuradha Baminiwatta
Ilya Baryshnikov
Tarun Bastiampillai
Sema Baykara
Manjeet S. Bhatia
Darmant Bhullar
Elaine Boland
Udo Bonnet
Thomas Brown
Antonio Bulbena
Michael Campbell
Stanley S. Caroff
Brendan Carroll
Gloria Castagna
Zeina Chemali
Amit Chopra
Jude Chukwuma
Inês Coelho
Beatriz Côrte-Real
Katalin Csigó
Inês Cunha
Ali Danesh
Nileswar Das
José de Leon
Rodrigo Escalona
Jaqueline Eserian
Andrea Fagiolini
Michael Fana
Abimbola Farinde
Uilna Natercia Feitosa
Antony Fernandez
David Fipps
João Gama Marques
Kamal Gandotra
Amir Garakani
Christina Girgis
Jorge Gómez-Arnau
Marta Gómez-Ramiro
Manish Kumar Goyal
Sheenam Goyal
Sandeep Grover
Mayank Gupta
Nitin Gupta
Vikas Gupta
Fatemeh Hadi
Bishurul Hafi
Sina Hafizi
David Halpern
Ahmad Hameed
Hashim Talib Hashim
Ali Hashimi
David Hathaway
Daniel Hernandez-Huerta
Franz Hozer
Sally Ibrahim
Ken Inada
Vivek Jain
Michael Jibson
Taranjeet S. Jolly
Patrícia Jorge
Dhwani Kamrai
Sujit Kumar Kar
Reza Kazemi
Ron Kessler
Zaira Khalid
Panagiota Korenis
Sevda Korkmaz
Henry Kosor
Murat Kuloglu
Hsien-Yuan Lane
Nadia Nara Lima
Joana Lopes
Boris Lorberg
Ulla-Marja Louhija
Yassir Mahgoub
Talib Manea
Sérgio Martinho
Prakash Masand
Roger McIntyre
Hasan Memon
Vikas Menon
Fatemeh Mirfazeli
Paroma Mitra
Souparno Mitra
Pedro Modrego
Jorge Mota
Neda Motamedi
Mona Nada
Roberto Nava
Naresh Nebhinani
Amy Newhouse
Jude Ohaeri
Sinay Önen
Erik Oudman
Murat Ozen
Kambiz Pahlavan
Chrisovalantis Paxos
Mustafa Ramadhan
Adam Reich
Maxwell Rovner
Kamaldeep Sadh
Siddharth Sarkar
Akiko Sato
Karim Sedky
Mary Seeman
Mujeeb Shad
Sunil Sharma
Nidhi Sharoha
Sonia Shenoy
Ajeet Sidana
David Spiegel
Shruti Srivastava
Joji Suzuki
Csanád Szabó
Junji Takeshita
Douglas Tucker
Taha Tuman
Mihir Upadhyaya
A. Uvais
Pankhuree Vandana
Rohit Verma
Shikha Verma
Sanya Virani
Roopma Wadhwa
Lawson Wulsin
Kuldeep Yadav
homas Zaubler
Rocksheng Zhong