APA has increasingly, especially under Dr. Harold Eist's presidency, dared to point out managed care's deficits insofar as patients are concerned, but it has largely kept that data "in house" and, to some extent, made efforts in the political arena. Thus, I was most pleased to see that Dr. Eist ended his column in the December 20, 1996, issue with this statement: "Isn't it time we. . . started informing the public of what is good as well as dangerous for their health?"

Indeed! It is our ethical responsibility to do so, as advocates for patients with emotional illness. Few among the public can be knowledgeable about the low level of care that managed care organizations provide for these patients. Surely, it is psychiatry's basic task to share these data with these patients (actual and potential) and their families. Doing so at least gives them the chance to put marketing ploys in some reasonable perspective and to allow crucial, more educated decisions.

Marvin G. Brook, M.D.
Beachwood, Ohio

(Psychiatric News, March 7, 1997)