President's letter - November 2004
Date 2004/11/10 21:39:54 | Topic: Organization News
| President's Letter - November 2004
Caroline Carney Doebbeling, MD, MSc
Last month I cared for a patient with lung cancer who was referred to me for an evaluation of anxiety and depression. Upon arrival in my office, his dyspnea was so severe, that he had difficulty speaking during the first ten minutes of the diagnostic evaluation. In addition to treating his target mental symptoms, I also started him on oxygen. He called a week later to report that his overall sense of well-being and stamina had greatly improved. He asked why his other doctor hadn’t recommended oxygen.
This case perfectly portray what the members of the Association of Medicine and Psychiatry do every day in their clinical work—assess and treat the overlap of physical and mental symptoms. Some would say we treat the whole patient, regardless of whether we are being identified as psychiatrists, internists, or family doctors. I think it is important that as an organization, we promote our skills and provide support and mentorship to each other. The annual meeting of our organization is an indispensable opportunity to do this.
The next national meeting of the Association of Medicine and Psychiatry will be held on Wednesday May 11, 2005, in New Orleans, LA in conjunction with the Society of General Internal Medicine’s national meeting. Dr. Brad Felker is chairing the planning committee for our meeting. We are excited to report that Benjamin Druss, MD, PhD, and Kurt Kroenke, MD, will be our keynote speakers. Dr. Druss is a national expert in delivery of medical services to persons with chronic mental illness. Dr. Kroenke is a national expert on the diagnosis and treatment of depression and unexplained physical symptoms in the primary care setting. These talks promise to be outstanding, and highlight the full range of clinical work that dual-boarded physicians are likely to participate.
We will shortly be contacting you with information regarding registration for the AMP meeting. Please see http://www.sgim.org/am/index.htm for information regarding registration for the SGIM national meeting. Please see www.sgim.org for information on the Society of General Internal Medicine. I strongly encourage all of you to consider membership in this organization. During the SGIM meeting, there will be workshops, research, and clinical presentations regarding a variety of topics including pain, domestic abuse, substance abuse, women’s health, and delivery of preventive services. Importantly, for the first time, mental health and substance abuse are listed as an independent topic for the meeting. The Mental Health in Medicine Interest group will also be meeting.
I’ve had the recent good fortune to be asked to serve as Deputy Editor for Mental Health for the Journal of General Internal Medicine. Editors William Tierney, MD, and Martha Gerrity, MD, are committed to increasing the coverage of mental health articles in the journal. I strongly encourage all of you to volunteer to become reviewers for this journal. Please see www.research.iupui.edu/jgim for reviewer registration. You will be asked to submit key words of your areas of interest. In the meanwhile, I plan on calling on many of you to review articles for this highly ranked journal.
Finally, the AMP will be hosting a breakfast meeting at the Academy of Psychosomatic Medicine’s annual meeting in November. I hope to see many of you there.
Please let Nish know what you’ve been working on most recently. We’d love to update job responsibilities, publications, participation in groups, teaching endeavors, and your other activities.
As always, contact me with any questions or concerns regarding the AMP. Stay well, Caroline Carney Doebbeling
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