Gratitude in a Year of Adversity

Gratitude in a Year of Adversity

I wish we could say, as we launch the new year of 2021, that the COVID-19 pandemic was behind us. Most of the world is facing a surge of infections and deaths from the virus, while emerging vaccination programs offer hope. The past year has brought changes in the midst of adversity that will indefinitely alter the way psychiatry and psychological services are practiced. The growth of telehealth and electronic platforms of health care service delivery was catalyzed out of need, but these new methods will, without a doubt, have a durable impact on the way we practice and interact with patients. Access to services for people with psychiatric disorders may improve on a large scale, but we also know that disparities in access will persist, requiring focused ongoing efforts.

The pandemic’s effects have created a plethora of psychosocial concerns, including loneliness, social isolation, grief, and financial crises. In the United States, we have seen political turmoil and divisiveness. Health care policy has always been intertwined with politics, but in the past year the influence of politics on public health has been underscored. A contagious virus has amplified the viral dissemination of destructive forces such as fear, tribalism, misinformation, and conspiracy theories, all of which may impact the mental health care needs of our communities.

In some ways, common threats have brought us together. We’ ve had to find ways to stay connected and available to our patients and each other. Extensive endeavors have been undertaken to build out telehealth and remote education. Research has been affected, and investigators have swiftly targeted impactful aspects of the pandemic, broadly striving to increase our understanding of the acute and longer term effects of the crisis.

As efforts have been initiated to meet the needs ushered in by the COVID-19 pandemic, both psychiatric care for patients and research in our field have carried on, although impeded in some areas more than others. As is the case with the general public, the colleagues who comprise our JCP community have encountered the challenges of increased responsibilities, professionally and personally, as we meet the daily needs of our work and home lives. Many are spread thin and exhausted by what has been an incredibly difficult year.

It is in this context that I express my deepest gratitude for our community of peer reviewers, who anonymously give of their time and expertise. We have continued to see new content submitted, reviewed, and published under the most trying of times, but this would not be possible without careful peer review. We are fortunate to be able to draw from generous and expert reviewers from around the world. As a way of recognizing their efforts, we now offer CME credit to our reviewers; to learn more about the peer review process, please visit Psychiatrist.com/reviewers.

We are also grateful for the authors who select JCP for their work in particular because our readership consists largely of clinicians and clinical researchers, and the manuscripts we publish can quickly influence and further patient care and research. The pipeline of data to inform clinical care and increase our patients’ quality of life remains rich.

I would also like to thank the incredible JCP staff, who did not pause in their important work during the pandemic. Instead, they have taken a robust team approach to rapidly and rigorously processing papers so that new information can be circulated with maximal benefit.

On behalf of the JCP team, we are grateful for the continuing efforts of each of you, and we hope your new year is filled with joy, good health, and peace.

Marlene P. Freeman, MD

Editor in Chief

Emilie Olié

Michael J. Ostacher

George I. Papakostas

Maurizio Pompili

Johan Reutfors

Thomas Richardson

Barbara O. Rothbaum

Brian Shiner

Eduard Vieta

Paul S. F. Yip

Mark Zimmerman

Reviewers for The Journal of Clinical Psychiatry

December 5, 2018-December 5, 2019

Ellen E. Lee

Hang Lee

Jimmy Lee

Belinda R. Lennox

Michael B. Lensing

Eric J. Lenze

Bianca A. Lever-van Milligen

Yossi Levi-Belz

Frances R. Levin

Kathryn E. Lewandowski

Duanping Liao

Nádia Nara Rolim Lima

Chen-Chung Liu

Jorge Lopez-Castroman

Paul H. Lysaker

Heather A. MacPherson

Matthew Macaluso

Trine Madsen

Rajnish Mago

Youssef Mahfoud

Giuseppe Maina

Vladimir Maletic

Peter Manu

Jessica L. Maples-Keller

Stephen R. Marder

John C. Markowitz

Luana Marques

Andrés Martin

Donel M. Martin

Elizabeth A. Martin

D. Richard Martini

Greg W. Mattingly

W. Vaughn McCall

Erin A. McClure

Susan L. McElroy

James J. McGough

Roger S. McIntyre

Francis J. McMahon

Molly K. McVoy

Alicia E. Meuret

Walter J. Meyer

Barnett S. Meyers

Matthew J. Miller

Zachary B. Millman

David Mischoulon

Brooke S. G. Molina

Wynne S. Morgan

Natalie P. Mota

Kim T. Mueser

James W. Murrough

Rajesh Nayak

J. Craig Nelson

Yuval Neria

Remington Nevin

Mark J. Niciu

Olav Nielssen

Andrew A. Nierenberg

Ruta M. Nonacs

Kazutaka Ohi

Emilie Olié

Dost Öngur

Lauren M. Osborne

Vicki Osborne

Michael J. Ostacher

George I. Papakostas

Joel Paris

Elyse R. Park

Gordon Parker

Barbara L. Parry

Neepa Patel

Jennifer L. Payne

Tara S. Peris

Amy Perry

Paul N. Pfeiffer

Marilyn L. Piccirillo

Matthew C. Podlogar

Mark H. Pollack

Thomas Pollak

Maurizio Pompili

Dina Popovic

Alejandro Porras-Segovia

Richard J. Porter

Sheldon H. Preskorn

Ric M. Procyshyn

Lena C. Quilty

Davin Quinn

Andrea Raballo

Rajiv Radhakrishnan

Roueen Rafeyan

Vinod Rao

Mark H. Rapaport

Murray A. Raskind

William H. Reid

Erin D. Reilly

Arne Reimers

Eva Z. Reininghaus

Christel Renoux

David C. Rettew

Johan Reutfors

Charles F. Reynolds III

Taeho Greg Rhee

Natalie B. V. Riblet

Thomas Richardson

Adelaide S. Robb

Dennis Rosen

Jerrold F. Rosenbaum

Joshua D. Rosenblat

Rebecca C. Rossom

Barbara O. Rothbaum

Anthony J. Rothschild

Maarten Pieter Rozing

Camilo J. Ruggero

A. John Rush

Arthur T. Ryan

Pilar A. Sáiz

Martha Sajatovic

Atsushi Sakuma

Gonzalo Salazar de Pablo

Jerome Sarris

Erika F. H. Saunders

Rob Saunders

Kirti Saxena

Alan F. Schatzberg

Jeffrey F. Scherrer

Adam T. Schmidt

Kristina Schnitzer

Sarah Scholle

Nina R. Schooler

Georgios Schoretsanitis

Randi Melissa Schuster

James G. Scott

Mary V. Seeman

Yvette I. Sheline

Richard C. Shelton

Li Shen

Brian Shiner

Prabha Siddarth

Alessio Simonetti

Lauren M. Sippel

Dan J. Siskind

Christina W. Slotema

Stephen F. Smagula

Claudio N. Soares

Nili Solomonov

Alexandra Sosinsky

Harm-Pieter Spaans

Patricia T. Spangler

Kai Spiegelhalder

Margaret G. Spinelli

Norman M. Spivak

Mamidipalli Sai Spoorthy

Sarah T. Stahl

Sunita M. Stewart

Kuan-Pin Su

M. Elizabeth Sublette

Jasjit S. Suri

Jeffrey W. Swanson

Mercedes J. Szpunar

Hiroyoshi Takeuchi

Rajesh R. Tampi

Rajiv Tandon

David Taylor

Tobias Teismann

Alan R. Teo

Stephen M. Thielke

Robyn P. Thom

Emily B. H. Treichler

Alfonso Troisi

Chia-Fen Tsai

Raymond P. Tucker

Rudolf Uher

Rachel Upthegrove

Linda Valeri

Rachel Vanderkruik

Marin Veldic

Eduard Vieta

Simone N. Vigod

Mark Viron

Jan Volavka

Martin Voracek

Sarah E. Vordenberg

Nicole Votruba

Kent E. Vrana

Lee E. Wachtel

Hong-Xing Wang

Peter J. Weiden

Tal Weinberger

Aviv Weinstein

Roger D. Weiss

Myrna M. Weissman

Charles A. Welch

Samuel T. Wilkinson

John W. Winkleman

Eva C. Winnebeck

Katherine L. Wisner

Courtney Benjamin Wolk

Chao-Yi Wu

Yvonne S. Yang

Philip T. Yanos

Ayşegül Yildiz

Paul S. F. Yip

Gihyun Yoon

Mary C. Zanarini

Carlos A. Zarate Jr

Robson Zazula

Jie Zhan

Wei Zheng

Bao-Liang Zhong

Shouhao Zhou

Mark Zimmerman

Mathias Zink