Improving Mental Health: Four Secrets in Plain Sight
The book aims to help clinicians improve the lives of their patients-and patients to improve their own lives--by identifying these secrets and taking action in ways that can work immediately, closing the science-to-practice gap.
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Lloyd I. Sederer, M.D., is Chief Medical Officer of the New York State Office of Mental Health, the nation's largest state mental health system. He is adjunct professor of epidemiology at the Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University. Previously, Dr. Sederer served as the Executive Deputy Commissioner for Mental Hygiene Services in New York City. He also has been Medical Director and Executive Vice President of McLean Hospital in Belmont, Massachusetts, a Harvard teaching hospital, and Director of the Division of Clinical Services for the American Psychiatric Association. In 2013, Dr. Sederer was given the Irma Bland Award for Excellence in Teaching Residents by the American Psychiatric Association, which recognized him in 2009 as the Psychiatric Administrator of the Year. He also has been awarded a Scholar-in-Residence grant by the Rockefeller Foundation and an Exemplary Psychiatrist award from the National Alliance on Mental Illness. He has published seven books for professional and now three books for lay audiences, as well as over 5000 articles in both medical journals and nonmedical publications. He is Medical Editor for Mental Health for the Huffington Post, where more than 250 of his posts and videos have appeared. He is also writes a regular column on mental health for U.S. News & World Report. He is a regular on Tell Me Everything, the SiriusXM radio show hosted by John Fugelsang.
In the second section of the book, he goes on to examine treatment for the individual, stressing that there is no one right option to fit everyone. He is critical of the fact that (amazingly) 90% of US recovery centres are based on Alcoholics Anonymous, which studies estimate is only effective for 5--10% of those who use it. A doctor's job, he argues, is to help their clients to find whatever combination of treatment works for them, and he takes us through the virtues of various options: 12 step, motivational interviewing, contingency management, and medication-assisted treatment among them. It's reassuring to see his reminder that "methadone maintenance can be life-saving"; reassuring also that he emphasizes the need to treat mental and physical comorbidities in addition to the addiction alone. UK policy makers would do well to be reminded of this. No quick-fix solution here, then, just wisdom and humanity. For those who work in the field and are already versed in Sederer's arguments there is perhaps little new information, but it's certainly refreshing to read a book on the subject that contains so much empathy and common sense. For those new to the subject -- including medical students and addiction trainees, if there are any of the latter left -- it's an excellent eye-opener: I shall be recommending it.
-- (07/02/2018)
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