Editor’s note: Psychiatry Leaders’ Perspectives is a new department in Current Psychiatry in which we interview a prominent psychiatrist about the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats facing the field of psychiatry.
In this first Psychiatry Leaders’ Perspectives, Awais Aftab, MD, interviewed Dilip V. Jeste, MD. Dr. Jeste is Senior Associate Dean for Healthy Aging and Senior Care, Estelle and Edgar Levi Memorial Chair in Aging, Director of the Sam and Rose Stein Institute for Research on Aging, Distinguished Professor of Psychiatry and Neurosciences, University of California San Diego; and Co-Director of the UC San Diego-IBM Center on Artificial Intelligence for Healthy Living. His main areas of research include schizophrenia, neuropsychiatric interventions, and successful aging. He served as the 139th President of the American Psychiatric Association (APA) and also is a past president of the American Association for Geriatric Psychiatry, the West Coast College of Biological Psychiatry, and founding president of International College of Geriatric Psychoneuropharmacology.
Dr. Aftab: The focus of your term as president of the APA was on “positive psychiatry.” You are also one of the world’s foremost experts in this area. How successful have you been in your mission to promote positive psychiatry, and how has your message been received?
Dr. Jeste: Let me start with a little bit of background about why I got into positive psychiatry. As a geriatric psychiatrist, my research work has brought me face to face with the paradox of aging: although physical health declines with age, mental health and well-being improve on average. This is the case not just for individuals in the community but also for individuals with serious mental illnesses. That got me into thinking more and more about the ways in which we can bring positive change in the lives of patients. When I became the president of the APA, one of my main tasks was to finalize and publish the DSM-5, which rightly focuses on the disorders we treat, but it also provided me with an opportunity to highlight the side of psychiatry that focuses on the positive aspects of our own and our patients’ lives, such as wisdom, resilience, meaning, and social connectedness.
As is the case with any new idea, there is a lot of resistance in the beginning and this will always be the case. However, I would say that positive psychiatry has been received very well. We now have an APA Caucus and a World Psychiatric Association Section on positive psychiatry. Our book, Positive Psychiatry, turned out to be one of the best sellers for American Psychiatric Publishing! Every year, there are symposia on positive psychiatry and papers and books from other countries. Overall, the reception has been very promising.
Dr. Aftab: Thank you for this interesting background, Dr. Jeste. Now let me ask you about the current state of psychiatry. What do you see as some of the strengths of our profession?
Dr. Jeste: Psychiatry’s unique strength is our skill in promoting adaptive behavior change, with a focus on positive factors such as resilience, wisdom, optimism, social engagement, improved health, and longevity. If you look at the research literature, the effect sizes of factors such as optimism, resilience, and social engagement are equal to or greater than interventions such as statins, smoking cessation, and exercise. Cardiothoracic surgeons and radiologists can’t help people increase their resilience, optimism, and social engagement, but psychiatrists can. Behavior change is our expertise. When people are suicidal, we give them hope; we help depressed individuals become active, productive, and happy. We treat people with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, reduce their psychopathological behaviors, and improve their everyday functioning.
Continue to: Dr. Aftab