Guest editor's memo

It is again an honor and privilege to serve as the guest editor of an issue of Advances in Pulmonary Hypertension; this time, “Psychosocial Issues in Pulmonary Hypertension.”

Why, might you wonder, are we devoting an issue to this topic? Very simply, it has not been done previously and these are issues that we probably (definitely) do not consider sufficiently. Our patients have clearly benefitted from the medications we now have available; yet there are other aspects of the disease, such as the impact on daily life and family, that also have an effect on the clinical status of our patients and their outcomes.

To try to understand these aspects of the disease to a greater degree, we explore several of these “non-medical” issues that have particular import to the patient: 1) attempts to define the toll that the diagnosis itself has on the patient; 2) the effect of the disease on the mental status of the patient; 3) the effect of disability and self-worth on the patient; and 4) the role of exercise in this disease. We also have a fascinating roundtable for this issue—one in which two very articulate and candid patients discuss with us the real effects that pulmonary hypertension has had on various aspects of their lives. This roundtable is in many ways eye-opening and covers issues that neither we, nor our patients, usually discuss during office visits. We hope that this issue will begin thought, discussion, and eventually solutions to the myriad of problems, in addition to the obvious medical ones, that our patients face every day. I would consider it a great success if it provokes such a response.