Richard A. Sherer

Following the recommendations of a working group set up to examine the American Psychiatric Association’s (APA) relationship with the pharmaceutical industry, the Board of Trustees has voted to phase out industry-sponsored educational programs and industry-supplied meals at annual meetings and educational symposia.

Two prominent psychiatrists have agreed to curtail their research activities following revelations about sizable consulting fees from pharmaceutical manufacturers.

The use of antipsychotics to quiet agitated older adults with dementia has come under increasing fire. After a Canadian study demonstrated an increased risk of adverse events or death with these agents,1 the FDA expanded its earlier warning to physicians.

Success with new approaches to the psychotherapeutic treatment of borderline personality disorder (BPD) and other DSM-IV personality disorders has been reported in several studies recently, raising hopes that an intractable set of illnesses may not be as hopeless as once thought.

Once his colleagues began to recover from the shock, the death of Dr Wayne S. Fenton triggered a discussion in the professional and lay press about the risks of violence to mental health professionals posed by mentally ill patients. Fenton was found unconscious and bleeding in his office in Bethesda, Md, on Sunday, September 3, 2006. He had been beaten severely around the head and died at the scene.

A new study comparing the benefits of second-generation antipsychotics (SGAs) with their older counterparts in patients with schizophrenia has yielded a surprising result. The study, funded by the UK National Health Service, found that the overall differences between first- and second-generation antipsychotics did not reach statistical significance.

With an application to certify its use in depression before the FDA, transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) has become a hot topic in the expanding field of device-based treatment modalities.

Mental health screening and treatment plans for soldiers deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan are being scrutinized after criticisms of the program have appeared in print and Web publications.

There is hope for patients with schizophrenia who do not respond to first-generation antipsychotic drugs: phase 2 results of the CATIE study show that second-generation antipsychotic drugs may be effective.

Guardianship laws--the provisions aimed at ensuring that elderly and incompetent individuals receive the necessities of life (including medical care and financial protection)--are drawing fire around the country amid charges of abuse, fraud and civil rights violations.

America's teaching hospitals are facing an unprecedented financial crisis that could leave more than one-third of the most respected institutions operating at a loss within the next five years, according to leaders in academic medicine. In addition to reducing their traditional educational programs, teaching hospitals may have to eliminate a wide variety of community health projects, poison control centers, safety programs and indigent care programs if budget cuts imposed by third-party payers are not reversed.

With less than five months before an irrevocable and unavoidable deadline, major questions still remain about the ability of the health care industry to cope with the so-called Y2K problem

There is a substantial constituency for alternative medicine. Worldwide, 70% to 90% of all health care "ranges from self-care according to folk principles, to care given in an organized health care system based on an alternative tradition or practice." As many as one-third of all Americans are reported to have some belief in alternative medicine or to be actively using nonmainstream remedies.