newsletter midyear update 2002

The Mental Health Information Centre continues to make progress in meeting its aims. The focus on mental health education at a primary health level has been supported by an increased number of CME activities, the distribution of the latest edition of the Algorithm book, and partnership with the new eCPD website. The larger public benefits from our close liaison with the media, which continues to be a valuable channel for psychoeducation and awareness of mental health issues.

Jane has recently visited Johannesburg to update product managers on the work we are doing and encourage their continued support for the centre in 2003.

Publications

• The 5th edition of the prescribing guide Psychiatric Medications in Primary Care: Algorithms and Guidelines, has been published and distributed as an insert with the June edition of the SAMA journal, CME.
• The 6th edition of the Mental Health Resource Guide of Southern Africa is presently being edited and will be published and distributed in September. A new chapter listing Occupational Therapists in Southern Africa is included.

Educational activities

• Psychopharmacology Congress 2003, Spier, Stellenbosch, September 10-13. Planning for the congress is well under way. Much interest has been shown following the success of last year's congress. A GP workshop will form part of the program.
• CME Activities: 5 more activities are planned for July, August and September. The topics to be addressed are: anxiety in children and adolescents; advances in the management of schizophrenia; post-partum depression; posttraumatic stress disorder; and a practical approach to DSM-IV classification.
• Consumer Health Days and Talks: On-site mental health education has been offered to members of Medscheme at Otis, in Cape Town. We expect to participate in other corporate health days later in the year.
• eCPD Partnership with Dept of Family Medicine and Primary Care.
  Selected CPD questions from Psychiatric Medications in Primary Care: Algorithms & Guidelines have been be posted, while the corresponding algorithms are available on our own website.
• Education Session for Post-Graduate Military Psychology Students. Post-grad psychology students from Saldanha campus spent a day at our offices where they had a comprehensive program lined up. They were educated on topics including psychoeducation and the importance of de-stigmatising mental illness, the role of research, eating disorders, CBT and anxiety disorders, substance abuse and psychosis.
• Website: Queries via the website continue to increase and we are improving the site by focussing information on two areas, the professional and the consumer. Professional information includes CME activities, congress information, academic and drug trials, and links to appropriate websites such as Medscape. We are also planning to add limited access to our publications. The consumer information focuses on education about mental health disorders, awareness campaigns, drug trials and useful links to relevant mental health sites such as the Memory website.

Research
News from our MRC Research Unit on Anxiety and Stress Disorders includes updates on some exciting studies:

• Heterogeneity of Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder: A Literature Review. Most people think of OCD as a single unitary disorder. However, there is growing information about the different subtypes of this condition. We undertook an extensive review of this area of work in order to prepare for specific studies in our own Unit (see an example next).
• Gender in Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder: Clinical and Genetic Findings. Gender, for example, may contribute to the clinical and biological heterogeneity of OCD. This study explores similarities and differences between men and women with OCD, in both symptoms and underlying genes. This work will soon be submitted for publication.

Awareness campaigns
We've started planning for this year's National Anxiety Disorders Awareness Week, which will run 07 to 13 October 2002. Thank you to Parke-Med/Pfizer for once again being our partners - the sixth year running now! Our focus this year will be on GP education, and will include CME's in Cape Town, Johannesburg and Durban. As always, we value collaboration with other mental health roleplayers and look forward to working with the Depression & Anxiety Support Group on the Johannesburg CME. We will also co-host a CME with our OCD genetics research team in the Worcester-area. See our website for further news on CME dates and venues.

Referral and information centre
Welcome to Faniswa Gxamza, who joined our team in July! Faniswa will largely be involved with the Psychiatry & HIV/AIDS project, but will also help man MHIC calls.