Clinical Practice Guidelines: Message from President

The Clinical Practice Guidelines (CPGs) represent the best available evidence based, systematically derived, practical guidelines that are consistent with safe and effective clinical care. CPGs constitute an important form of learning to keep abreast with professional approaches to clinical care and supporting day-to-day decision making. CPGs help in anchoring practice to evidence that is a huge support to clinicians. The Indian Psychiatric Society (IPS) has been developing CPGs in various subject areas since the last two decades, publishing them in the Indian Journal of Psychiatry (IJP) every year as a special supplement, released with pride at its annual national conferences. So far 17 such special volumes of IJP have been published on most of the important subject areas. Professor Shiv Gautam in Jaipur has led the CPG team and done this extraordinary service to the IPS for two decades, for which we are ever so grateful. Psychiatry is a rapidly evolving science and has changed significantly in the last two decades. So, we thought of updating our IPS CPGs rather than writing new ones this year. The new CPG team led by Dr. Adarsh Tripathi, Lucknow, this year has worked on producing the updated CPGs on four major and most common disorders namely depression, schizophrenia, bipolar affective disorders, and anxiety disorders. The authors have conducted an excellent job in writing India centric, state-of-the-art, up-to-date guidelines that serve to help the practicing psychiatrists, post graduate students in delivering evidence based high quality care to patients, and their families. The CPGs also help in providing medico-legal protection. On behalf of the entire membership of the IPS and on my own personal behalf, I thank all the authors of the CPGs for their pro bono service to the profession and the IPS, as well as the CPG Subcommittee members for their excellent cooperation and oversight, in ensuring its timely completion. Thanks, and congratulations are also due to our dynamic editor Dr. Sujit Sarkhel for ensuring to bring out this special supplement of CPG Updates ready for release at the inaugural function of the 77th ANCIPS in Delhi. Best wishes and warm regards Long live IPS!