Policy, professionalism and psychotherapy; the clinical practice guidelines' dilemma.

Objective: To review a rebuttal to widely published concerns that the Clinical Practice Guidelines (CPG) devalues the role of long-term psychodynamic psychotherapy as a treatment in mood disorders.

Conclusion: There is a wider context to this debate. The CPG presents the RANZCP with a dilemma about treatments, professionalism and policy; it requires amendment.

Clinical practice guidelines, psychotherapy and implications for psychiatry.

Objective: The 2020 RANZCP clinical practice guidelines (CPG) for mood disorders, published in January 2021, raise important questions for practice and teaching. The objective of this review is to critically appraise the content of the CPG to examine if it reflects contemporary practice-based evidence.

Conclusion: Our review identifies factual error and notes international criticism.

Medicare Item 319 after 10 years: a range of concerns.

Objective: The aim of this paper was to re-examine, via a risk benefit analysis, the rationale of restrictions to long-term intensive psychotherapy and psychoanalytic treatment through the mechanism of the Commonwealth Medicare Benefits Scheme (CMBS) in light of side effects on patients' access to treatment, their self-esteem, and their privacy.

Conclusion: The application of the Global Assessment of Functioning Scale and the specificity of CMBS Item 319 on individual patients' medical records carry risks that are not offset by demonstrable communal benefits that were predicted when the item was introduced 10 years ago.