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Special Issues for Patients With Bipolar Disorder Coping With COVID-19Patients with bipolar disorder often find it difficult to maintain schedules and routines, all the more challenging with the COVID-19 pandemic. More in this video.
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The Limitations of Our Diagnostic Classification: Beyond DSM’s ChecklistsWe do not need psychiatrists who fit people into categories and slots and treat them as if they are robots, according to the dictates of a recipe book called “The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual.”
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Mini Quiz: The Aggression-Depression ConnectionBesides being sad, patients who are depressed often feel disgruntled, resentful, or irritable. Such emotions can lead to violence in people who are predisposed to such behavior. Consider the questions in this quiz.
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Gaming Addiction in ICD-11: Issues and ImplicationsWith internet and video gaming here to stay, game designers will continue to prioritize habitual gaming over the health of players, and the burden of pathological gaming will fall on users and their families.
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Mood Disorders in Later Life, 2nd edThis text provides an excellent overview of mood disorders during older adulthood. Chapter 1 deals with diagnosis and includes helpful diagnostic tools and pertinent laboratory values. Chapter 2 addresses nonmajor depressive syndromes-a much-needed area of discussion-and provides a literature review in an easy-to-read table. Chapter 3 includes very good information about epidemiology and a most useful table of information. Another strength is a discussion of potential reasons for low rates of depressive disorders.
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Sexual Offenders With Mental Illness: Special Considerations for a Special PopulationWhether or not sexual offending behavior-or the predisposition to such-is a mental illness, there are patients with traditional mental illnesses who also present with sexually inappropriate and even sexual offending behavior.
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Culture and Eating DisordersCulture has been identified as one of the etiological factors leading to the development of eating disorders. Rates of these disorders appear to vary among different cultures and to change across time as cultures evolve. Additionally, eating disorders appear to be more widespread among contemporary cultural groups than was previously believed.
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'Pop' Psychology: Putting Rock and Roll Music on the Psychoanalytic CouchMusic as a creative expression can rouse emotions. Sometimes, music can be used as a means of exploring those emotions and making a connection between musician and listener. Two examples, the Beatles' White Album and the Talking Heads' Remain in Light, show how music can do more than soothe the savage beast--it can also tell us something about ourselves.
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Concerns About Practice GuidelinesSeveral readers have responded with comments and concerns regarding my column, "Do Physicians Use Practice Guidelines?" Since the issues these readers raised are important and concern many psychiatrists, they merit some discussion.
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How Quickly Do Antidepressants Begin to Work?Is there such a thing as a placebo effect? If so, at what point does the drug effect really occur? How do we distinguish between the two?
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Recovery From Disability: Manual of Psychiatric RehabilitationGiven Dr Liberman’s remarkable productivity and his amazing capacity to keep his finger on the pulse of the field, I expect to find practical guidance in such circumstances in the next edition of Recovery From Disability.
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Thinking About Mental Illness: 6 Steps for Medical School FacultyRegardless of the systems in place at medical schools, psychiatrists and psychiatry residents play an important role in molding medical students' attitudes toward mental illness.
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Mental Health and HIV/AIDSAn overview of the interface between HIV/AIDS infection and mental illness.
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Public Comment Period Opens for First Set of New Proposals to Update DSM-5Advances in digital publishing that allow instantaneous dissemination of changes at minimal cost have paved the way towards the adoption of a continuous improvement model for DSM, in which revisions are pegged to specific scientific advances.
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The Art of Rating Mental Health AppsWith now over 165,000 health care apps directly available for download today, how can psychiatrists identify which are the most helpful and which to avoid?
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What Role Does (Should) Lithium Play in Suicide Treatment/Prevention?An interesting pharmacological approach in terms of anti-suicidal strategies is the use of lithium for treatment of patients with affective disorders. Details here.
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Discussion of the Phenomenon of Unknown Family MembersThe discovery of an unknown family member can bring about joy or grief, and raise many clinical questions about the psychodynamics that are at play within families.
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Does MDMA Have a Role in Clinical Psychiatry?Like every drug or technology that has therapeutic value, MDMA (3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine) has potential risks and benefits. Unlike most other drugs under clinical investigation, MDMA has a complex and controversial history that has delayed dispassionate scientific investigation into its therapeutic use.
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Developmental Traumatology: Neurobiological Development in Maltreated Children With PTSDDevelopmental traumatology research is the systemic investigation of the psychiatric and psychobiological impact of overwhelming and chronic interpersonal violence on the developing child.
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Clinical Update on CultsHistorically, cult refers to a system of worship and more specifically to an innovative religious system, as opposed to a sect, which is a breakaway group from an established religion. During the past 30 years, however, cult has taken on a pejorative connotation arising from disasters such as Jonestown and Waco, and hundreds of media reports of individuals and families devastated by involvement in cults.
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Single Payer? Yes, But. . .The authors argue that adopting a single payer system would be like jumping out of the fire and into the frying pan. They look at three perspectives-the doctor's, the patient's and the health care policy-maker's.
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Treatment for Eating Disorders and the Path to WellnessPodcast: Experts summarize effective treatment options for patients with eating disorders and discuss common features, medical components of anorexia and bulimia, behavioral features, and psychological symptoms.
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In Defense of ECTResearch data shows that ECT is often more effective than alternative treatments, and safe too.
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Rejecting the Accusation of a Violated STAR*D ProtocolThe original STAR*D authors refute claims of a violated protocol.
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Illicit Drug Dependence Across the Globe: Results From the Global Burden of Disease 2010 StudyHow prevalent is dependence on amphetamines, cocaine, opioids, and other illicit drugs across the world? What is the associated disease burden? Insights here.
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A Crisis in the Public Service Psychiatric WorkforceHere's what's known about the growing shortage of psychiatrists -- why it's happening-- and possible solutions.
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Reasons Patients Doubt Medication-Resistant Delusions in SchizophreniaOur study suggests that most delusional patients, even those with high positive symptom scores, may have at least 1 RFD that precedes a clinical intervention specifically directed toward encouraging doubt. These preexisting “islands of doubt” may offer a useful foothold to begin the CBT process.
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Psychiatry’s Underground EconomyIt seems to this psychiatrist that a significant cohort of his colleagues conduct their practices in what might best be described as an “underground economy”: a system of services and charges disconnected from the conventional constructs by which these activities are presumably measured.
