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Journal club syndrome: a newly described disorder of doctors in training

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

Ignasi Agell
Ignasi Agell*
Affiliation:
South Staffordshire and Shropshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust, Cherry Orchard House, 39 Hospital Street, Tamworth B79 7EE, email: ignasi.agell@sssft.nhs.uk
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Psychiatric Bulletin , Volume 33 , Issue 10 , October 2009 , pp. 396 - 397
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Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BY
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
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Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists, 2009

Journal clubs and case presentation meetings are an important part of ‘in-house’ training and an opportunity for all doctors to practise and develop presentation skills. There are ample suggestions for improving the quality of such clubs, but I could not find any that identified risks associated with this practice. I am happy to provide what in my knowledge is the first case-series report, based on anecdotal impressions, of such risks, with the knowledge and responsibility that it may generate a new field of research and debate or the definition of a journal club syndrome.

My experience suggests that the period preceding a journal club is directly associated with an increase of physical and mental health problems on presenting doctors, to an extent that makes it impossible to prepare for or deliver the presentation. Mental health problems include temporary cognitive deficits (mainly in the form of episodic memory loss that recovers with no intervention), manifested by a high number of doctors that have forgotten either that it was their day to present or to bring on the day the wrongly called memory sticks that carried all the data. In the latter case, further symptoms include the lack of alternative supporting methods and the common perception that stand-alone oral presentation cannot be delivered. Accidents, thefts and losses are also reported on a higher proportion in the pre-presentation period, to the point that health and safety regulation of journal clubs may become standard practice one day soon.

This evidence has been accumulated through many years of training and working in different areas, which suggests that the risk is not associated to specific grades of doctors, disciplines, environments, hospitals, trusts or geographical areas. As I continue to be surprised by the high quality of some presentations, mainly of very junior doctors, and challenged by their enthusiasm, I hope that this newly described syndrome does not present with associated apathy to others involved in the journal club.

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