Our Case Debut: A Case Presentation from the Association of Psychologists in Academic Health Centers
This ‘‘Case Debut’’ was accidentally left out of the June 2007 issue. We are pleased to lead this new and innovative case presentation series with the work of Drs. Macht, Pasqualini and Taba concerning the use of cognitive behavioral strategies for Parkinson’s disease. For some time, the editors of the Journal of Clinical Psychology in Medical Settings, the official journal of the Association of Psychologists in Academic Health Centers have planned to develop a case presentation series that illustrates the important advances, contributions and clinical thinking which psychologists have brought to their work in medical and health care settings. The feature patterns itself after the case presentations in the New England Journal of Medicine in which cases are discussed by various clinicians with appropriate medical, laboratory, radiographic and pathology data included along with psychological and neuropsychological tests. We believe that the practice of psychology in these health settings has reached a level of sophistication and maturity that a case series of this type is warranted for this specialization. There are many experienced and senior medical/ health psychologists who can contribute substantially to this literature by illustrating their cases and perspectives. These are not traditional case presentations in which a case and a specific intervention are given but instead the clinical process, diagnosis, prognosis and decision-making of several clinicians are shared. Education and discussion are the primary goals for the series rather than ‘‘the correct diagnosis or correct intervention.’’ We hope by developing this series and bringing it to the attention of health and medical psychologists that it will serve to be a teaching tool for students and a platform for discussion and continuing education for experienced and senior psychological clinicians. We are excited and thrilled about this series and present in this issue of JCPMS the initial case presentation. The time has come for medical and health psychologists to share their clinical wisdom, experience and contributions to patient care.