Royal College of Psychiatrists.

Special Interest Groups have been organised in the College since the late 1970s to facilitate the exchange of information, promote discussion and to generate interest in a particular field of psychiatry. The following are the Special Interest Groups of the College: History of Psychiatry, Computers in Psychiatry, Gay and Lesbian, Management in Psychiatry, Perinatal, Philosophy in Psychiatry, Spirituality, Transcultural, Women in Psychiatry, Adolescent Forensic, Eating Disorders, Private Practice, Audio Visual, and Neuropsychiatry. Some of these Groups are still in existence whilst the others became inactive and were subsequently dissolved by Council.

The Publications Department of the Royal College of Psychiatrists was established in the late 1970s, although the idea of establishing a journal goes back to the founding years of the College`s predecessor bodies. The British Journal of Psychiatry was first published in 1853 as the Asylum Journal, later changing its name to the Journal of Mental Science, and finally the British Journal of Psychiatry in 1963.

The College also publishes other journals, namely, The Psychiatrist which was previously known as the Psychiatric Bulletin, Advances in Psychiatric Treatment and International Psychiatry. The College has been publishing books under the the Gaskell imprint. These books range from small booklets to large textbooks, and are aimed at diverse audiences running from extremely specialist academic groups to the general public.

The Divisions of the Royal College of Psychiatrists began officially in 1894, although there were local meetings of the Medico-Psychological Association (a predecessor body of the College) in Ireland and Scotland prior to this date. England was divided into three divisions, namely Northern and Midland, South East and South West. This structure remained unchanged even when the Association became the Royal Medico-Psychological Association.

At the inception of the College in 1971 a new divisional structure emerged. This consisted of the Scottish, Irish and Welsh Divisions, and seven separate English Divisions, which were North East; North West; Midlands; South Western; Chiltern and Thames Valley; East Anglian; and Southern. The Divisional structure was again reorganised in 1995 in order to have College Divisions that would be contiguous with the National Health Service Regions. This resulted in the creation of the Trent Division in 1997.

International Divisions were formally established at the College`s annual meeting in 2004, although the Indian Division existed btween 1935 and 1948.

In 2003 The Northern Ireland Division was established, and for some time it existed side by side with the Irish Division. In 2009 the Irish College of Psychiatrists (formerly the Irish Division) left the Royal College of Psychiatrists when it merged with other Irish Psychiatric Associations to form the The College of Psychiatry in Ireland.

The current College Divisional structure comprise eight English Divisions, eight international divisions, and the Royal College in Scotland; the Royal College in Northern Ireland; and the Royal College in Wales.

The Special Committee on Unethical Psychiatric Practices was set up in 1978 by the Council of the Royal College of Psychiatrists, in the wake of the condemnation of the Soviet misuse of psychiatry to suppress dissent. Its remit was to consider all reports on the political abuse of psychiatry wherever it might occur and to recommend what action the College might take. The Committee was was not to go into formal links with other bodies, but could seek help and advice from other organisations like, Amnesty International and Campaign Against Psychiatric Abuses when this was felt to be necessary.

The Committee was initially known as the Special Committee on the Political Abuse of Psychiatry, since it mainly focused only on political abuse of psychiatry. In the long run as other issues were brought to the Committee`s attention, its remit was accordingly widened, as reflected in its new title, the Special Committee on Unethical Psychiatric Practices, which was adopted in 1986. Other issues dealt with by the Special Commitee included: 1) The unequal provision of psychiatric services in South Africa, based on race; 2) The use of torture in interrogation procedures and its psychiatric sequalae; 3) The application of psychological techniques to harass prisoners in Uruguay; and 4) The serious malpractices of psychiatry in Japan.

In 1994 the Special Committee became the Ethics Working Group of the Public Policy Committee. In 1996 the Group changed its name to become the Ethics Sub-Committee, and in 2006 the Committee became a sub committee of the Special Committee on Professional Governance and Ethics (SCPGE), which eventually changed its name to become the current Special Committee for Professional Practice and Ethics.

After World War II when the Royal Medico-Psychological Association realized that more of its members were now being employed in different fields of psychiatry, it decided to create specialist Sections. The fisrt four Sections to be created were: Research and Clinical Studies, Social Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Mental Deficiency, and Child Psychiatry.

A Research Committee was established in 1914 and a standing Research and Clinical Committee in 1927. It had sub-committees in actinotherapy, bacteriology, and biochemistry, clinical psychiatry, and glossary, epidemic encephalis, general paresis, infectious diseases, mental deficiency, pathology, psychotherapy and psychopathology, and study tours, In 1932 the actinotherapy, general paresis, epidemic encephalis sub-committees merged to form the the Clinical Psychiatry Sub-Committee. In 1933 a Sections Committee was established, resulting in the Research and Clinical, Mental Deficiency, Child Psychiatry and Social Psychiatry Sections being established.

Old age psychiatry is one of the recently established specialties within psychiatry. A College Group for the Psychiatry of Old Age first met in 1973. Another specialty to emerge during this period was was the Dependence/Addiction Group in 1978. This later became the Faculty of Substance Misuse in 1997, changing its name to the Addictions Faculty in 2006.

The Medical Planning Sub-Committee was set up in July 1941 by the Council of the Royal Medico-Psychological Association a predecessor body of the Royal College of Psychiatrists. The Sub-Committee was responsible for liaising with other medical bodies like the Royal Society of Medicine (RSM), the British Medical Association`s Group of Practitioners of Psychological Medicine and the Royal College of Physicians on the admininstration, and the future of psychiatric services.

The British Geriatrics Society and the Royal College of Psychiatrists Joint Liason Committee was set up in 1976. The Committee was established to facilitate discussion on matters of common interest concerning old age psychiatry.

The British Paediatric Association and the Royal College of Psychiatrists Liaison Committee was established in 1986 to enable collaboration between the two bodies to discuss and debate joint issues, to facilitate closer integration of paediatrics and psychiatry, and to provide a source of advice and guidance on training for the two bodies.

The Standing Joint Committee of the Royal College of Psychiatrists and British Psychological Society was set up in 1975, but held its first meeting on 7 January 1977.

The The Royal College of Psychiatrists and the College of Occupational Therapists was established in 1988 to promote professional links and understanding between the two disciplines and to encourage joint research.