Community psychiatry and the population explosion.

Although excessive population has long been a dilemma in certain areas of the world, current rates of growth present a global threat to all nations. Arguments based on economics, world peace, individual freedom, humanism and the preservation of life's amenities all point to the urgent need for programs to control birth rates. This applies to the United States also, although we have the advantage of a relatively high cultural and economic level from which to attack the problem. Modern psychiatry is increasingly committed to the Community Mental Health concept, which in part implies greater involvement with the element of the population that is socially and economically at a disadvantage. Effective treatment cannot ignore the effects on the patient of intolerable reality situations, often produced by successive unwanted pregnancies. In addition, a positive approach to family planning by psychiatrists and social workers will provide the structure needed for truly preventive psychiatry; as our knowledge of the determinants of psychosis, delinquency and mental retardation expands, selective counseling can do much to prevent these family and social tragedies. Both as world citizens and as practitioners of a profession, psychiatrists cannot afford to delay pledging their resources to the solution of so compelling a problem.