The study by Gordon et al Reference Gordon, Miller and Collins1 looking at the portrayal of psychiatry in YouTube videos was novel, although it was disheartening to note their finding that our field is being depicted in a predominantly negative light.
In this context, I am writing to provide some details of my YouTube channel called ‘Psychiatry Lectures’ (www.youtube.com/channel/UCVZhg8unEqo0XUm8cHAIwbA/videos). This is a free-to-access educational channel featuring videos on psychiatry topics targeted at health professionals who see psychiatric patients. So far, I have uploaded 19 videos covering most of the major psychiatry topics, for example, schizophrenia, mood disorders and anxiety disorders. The average duration of the videos is 50 min and most videos end with a set of five multiple choice questions. The videos are in the form of PowerPoint presentations with my narration.
YouTube has an analytics section that is accessible to the channel's creator and that provides detailed statistics about viewership. Until 31 December 2015 the 19 videos had garnered over 34 000 views in 160 countries, with the top 5 nations in terms of views being the USA, India, UK, Australia and Canada. Viewer demographic details show a male preponderance (65%). With respect to age, the 25-34 group had the maximum number of viewers, followed by the 18-24 group. This suggests - and is supported by feedback in the comments section – that medical students and postgraduate psychiatry trainees form the bulk of the audience. In total, the videos have received 210 ‘likes’ and only 6 ‘dislikes’, indicating a high degree of acceptability in a discerning, mainly professional audience.
My YouTube channel may be considered as part of free open access medical education (FOAM). The FOAM movement, pioneered by emergency medicine physicians in Australia, Reference Nickson and Cadogan2 aims to offer medical students and doctors free access to medical information online, delivered in a variety of formats such as videos, slideshows, podcasts, articles, blogs and Twitter (#FOAMed).
The paper by Gordon et al Reference Gordon, Miller and Collins1 is a timely reminder to the psychiatric profession that we have to battle widespread misinformation, whether deliberate or well-intentioned, about our specialty, not only in traditional, mainstream media such as print and TV, but also in cyberspace. Constructive criticism, both from within and outside the profession, is definitely valid and welcome. But biased and baseless distortions about psychiatry only reinforce the already entrenched stigma, with far-reaching consequences ranging from inadequate recruitment of psychiatrists Reference Rajagopal, Rehill and Godfrey3 to discrimination against patients. Reference Taggart and Bailey4 Gordon et al's suggestions on how psychiatry can fight back against this misrepresentation are worthy of consideration.
Open access
eLetters
No eLetters have been published for this article.