Letter from ISBD President, Professor Michael Berk
Dear Members,
It is my privilege to be able to serve the ISBD for the next two years as president. The ISBD plays a critical international role in fostering advocacy in the area of bipolar disorder. The ISBD aims to promote awareness of bipolar disorder in society at large, including promotion of awareness and education among mental health professionals and the broader public. In addition, the ISBD attempts to foster research on all aspects of bipolar disorder while promoting international collaboration and empowering regions and countries with limited access to research opportunities.
It is always a relatively simple matter to take over an organization that is flourishing and much of the credit for the growth and development of the ISBD needs to go Dr. Lakshmi Yatham, the immediate past president. The financial situation of the ISBD is much healthier than it was a few years ago and the membership base has grown substantially from 300 to nearly 600 unsupported members, with a total membership of nearly 800.
A number of very important projects have been commenced by the ISBD, including a DSM-V committee led by Dr. Nassir Ghaemi, which has put together a supplement in Bipolar Disorders, highlighting key issues in the potential revision for the DSM-V classification. Professor Eduard Vieta is heading a revised DSM-V committee, which will continue the work of the previous committee to synthesize material that will advocate for positions supported by the ISBD. Our goal is to attempt to guide the DSM-V committee towards newly emerging data supporting areas within the classification that would merit revision. There are also preliminary discussions aimed at establishing working groups in the areas of bipolar disorder in older individuals and bipolar disorder in women. Groups already established are running in the areas of safety and monitoring, neurocognition, and nomenclature on course and outcome in bipolar disorder, which will soon have papers with data ready for publication.
The ISBD has taken on a number of new initiatives; these include an ISBD website committee headed by Dr. Francesc Colom, which aims to develop psychoeducational material for the ISBD website that could become a reference point for consumers seeking information about bipolar disorder on the web. A second new initiative is an industry liaison committee, which aims to integrate a number of key scientists working in the industry in a liaison capacity with the broad goals and strategies of the ISBD. This committee is headed by Dr. Mauricio Tohen.
A further major focus is the process of chapter development. This has been a major priority area of the ISBD and continues to be a dominant policy initiative. The purpose of this process is to integrate individuals and countries into the ISBD that were previously inadequately represented in the organization. A number of chapters have been developed, and there are plans for a significantly larger number of chapters to be incorporated and integrated into the ISBD. Some of the newly emerging chapter affiliations are being spearheaded in Malaysia, by Dr. Peter Koh; Venezuela, by Dr. Luis Madrid Peroza; Chile, by Dr. Hernan Silva; Israel by Dr. Yuly Bersudsky; China, by Dr. Jingping Zhao; Japan, by Dr. Shigenobu Kanba; Korea, by Dr. Kyooseob Ha; and Europe under a broad coalition based in the UK and elsewhere.
The ISBD also plans to continue with all the successful programs including the supported trainee membership program, the Samuel Gershon Awards for Junior Investigators, the ISBD Fellowship Awards program, as well as ISBD Poster Awards to be presented at Society meetings.
The plans for the Sao Paolo 2010 meeting are well underway and we are hopeful to continue the successful tradition of the Sydney, Edinburgh and Delhi meetings. I would encourage everyone to flag this meeting for his or her 2010 calendars.
I would lastly like to thank Chad Daversa and Laura Cek in the ISBD office, without whom none of the projects and activities of the Society would be possible. I look forward to a productive and engaging period for the Society, and aim for it to be a time of inclusiveness and growth.
My very best to each of you,
Michael Berk
President