Consortium Psychiatricum

Dear colleagues!

I am pleased to introduce the second issue of Consortium Psychiatricum journal in 2021. It is a thematic issue devoted to the forthcoming ICD-11 implementation and to the chapter on Mental, Behavioural and Neurodevelopmental Disorders. From 2022, country members of the World Health Organization are recommended to start the transition from ICD-10 to ICD-11. Knowledge of changes in the classification is essential for its further adoption along with awareness of attitudes and concerns about ICD-11 innovations among mental healthcare professionals.

In this issue, we collected articles that, from our point of view, highlight the changes in the classification system and at the same time reflect the views of professionals from different countries of the world.

The editorial article on ICD-11 Revision of Mental Disorders is presented by a group of experts including Dr. Melita Vujnovic, WHO Representative to the Russian Federation, and Professor Geoffrey Reed who served as the Senior Project Officer for the ICD-11 chapter on Mental, Behavioral and Neurodevelopmental Disorders and other related chapters.

Cultural aspects of mental disorders that play a substantial role in the new classification are explored in the review article. A report on the participation of Russian clinicians in the ICD-11 development and implementation is followed by two research articles presenting studies of the attitudes of the Russian professional community regarding ICD-11 and the use of ICD-10 by Russian psychiatrists.

From this issue we start a new rubric in the journal – Discussion – where different views on the same problem are presented. We publish two articles on the gender identity issue in relation to the fundamental changes made in ICD-11 depathologizing transgender identities. A detailed review of the transgender concepts that preceded the removal of gender identity from the mental disorders chapter is presented in one article, while another article focuses on the problem of high mental health comorbidity prevalence in transgender people that may require close attention by mental health professionals.

Another new rubric in the journal is named Historical Perspective. We plan to publish keynote papers of the past that influenced progress in psychiatry, accompanied by commentaries by contemporary professionals, or papers by contemporary authors that illuminate the historical background of the concepts that are still developed or discussed in current times. In this issue, we publish an article about the evolution of approaches to schizophrenia diagnostics from Kraepelin to the present.

A commentary on the perspectives of ICD-11 implementation in Russia is made by Professor Valery Krasnov who was a principal in the ICD-11 field studies in Russia.

Our traditional rubric - Special Articles - on the organization of community mental care by countries, is also continued in this issue. The experience of Qatar, Serbia and Italy is shared by distinguished experts from these regions.

I hope you enjoy reading this issue and that the topics raised can provoke a discussion in the professional community. I welcome your views and comments in the Letters to the Editor.

George Kostyuk,

Editor-in-Chief, Consortium Psychiatricum