Psychiatric Times Vol 16 No 7

Proposed in December 1998, the merger has turned Aetna into a managed care powerhouse providing coverage for about one in 11 Americans and having contracts with some 400,000 physicians, more than half the national total. This concentration of economic power, opponents charge, will substitute profit-driven "minimally acceptable clinical guidelines" for treatment plans determined by physicians operating in their patients' best interests. Mental Health Threatened by Aetna/Prudential Merger

Ownership of the human genome-or, more exactly, access to the tools and databases necessary to make sense out of the millions of bits of information that make up the estimated 100,000 human genes-constitutes one of the hottest scientific debates in the public policy arena. On one hand is the Human Genome Project (HGP), a worldwide consortium of governments and their supported researchers who are mapping the 23 pairs of human chromosomes and are determining the complete nucleotide sequence, involving 3 billion base pairs of DNA.

The benefits of psychotherapy in treating the chronically suicidal patient, as well as strategies that can help the potential suicide patient imagine and reflect others' reactions to this most final of acts, was the subject of a conference by Glen O. Gabbard, M.D., at the 11th Annual U.S. Psychiatric & Mental Health Congress. Gabbard is the Bessie Callaway Distinguished Professor of Psychoanalysis and Education at the Karl Menninger School of Psychiatry and Mental Health Sciences.

Whenever a Stanley Kubrick film opens, it is an event. Kubrick, who is considered by many the cinematic genius of the 20th century, made 15 feature films. The eager anticipation surrounding his last film "Eyes Wide Shut," scheduled to be released this summer, has intensified even further because of Kubrick's unexpected death last March at the age of 70. Although the film is shrouded in standard Kubrickian secrecy, leaks suggest that Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman play psychotherapists who are sexually involved with their patients.

Tina, a 35-year-old legal secretary, is admitted to the hospital hearing voices that demand she gouge out her own eyes as punishment for having lived a sinful life. She was seen in the local emergency room prior to admission, both for involuntary certification and treatment for corneal damage from having attempted to harm herself. She states to the admitting psychiatrist, "If thine eye offend thee, pluck it out!"

Postcard from Auschwitz - Poetry of the Times

For her work in establishing the Dialectic Behavioral Therapy (DBT) model for use with chronically suicidal individuals suffering from borderline personality disorder (BPD), Marsha M. Linehan, Ph.D., is this year's recipient of the annual research award given by the New York City-based American Foundation for Suicide Prevention (AFSP). Linehan is professor of psychology and adjunct professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at the University of Washington.

This article addresses several important theoretical issues related to dynamically oriented psychotherapy. These issues include the therapeutic alliance and transference, the authority of the therapist and neutrality, the stability of the therapeutic environment, countertransference, empathy, and basic strategy. Efforts are made to present these issues in a contemporary context.

Psychiatry residents want and need solid training in psychotherapy in order to best serve their patients and to remain competitive in the mental health marketplace, concluded a March conference sponsored by the American Psychiatric Association's Commission on Psychotherapy by Psychiatrists (COPP). The event, entitled "Integration and Specificity in Psychotherapy Education," drew 120 training directors, residents and faculty from around the country, and represented approximately 40% of U.S. residency training programs.

Until the last half of this century, there were few if any treatments that seemed consistently effective in responding to the clinical needs of individuals who were abusing or dependent upon alcohol. As a result, support or self-help groups emerged. Alcoholics Anonymous is an extraordinary example of these groups.