Psychiatric Times Vol 20 No 10

With never-ending, ongoing conflict in the Middle East, trauma issues become of paramount importance. In some ways, trauma may even be considered to be continual. What are the unique challenges of psychological trauma at this level and how are people in this region coping?

In July, the President's New Freedom Commission on Mental Health issued a document that is likely to shape the nation's mental health policies for decades. The commission's charge was to study inadequacies in the current mental health system and make specific recommendations for addressing these problems without increasing government spending on mental health care.

Research Fails to Link Talk Therapy With Heart Attack Survival - Poetry of the Times

A study presented at the Eleventh International Congress of the International Psychogeriatric Association showed that risperidone 1 mg/day reduced the risk of falls in ambulatory patients with dementia. Data from 537 patients in a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, 12-week, multicenter study of three doses of risperidone were included.

Zubenko and colleagues recently released results from the first genome-wide linkage survey for genetic loci that influence the development of unipolar mood disorders in 81 families identified by individuals with recurrent, early-onset, major depressive disorder. The survey found 19 loci that appear to influence vulnerability to depressive disorders.

Why do Asian-Americans (especially university students) appear to suffer from higher levels of symptoms of social anxiety than white Americans, yet their high symptom reports are not accompanied by behavioral signs of social anxiety? Is this discrepancy due to culturally determined display rules or biased assessment by those who are culturally different? How does this discrepancy make it difficult for clinicians to accurately assess the severity of social anxiety among Asian-Americans?

How is cultural psychiatry defined? What is its history in the United States and how will it continue to influence mental health care in the future? What do mental health care professionals need to know to provide culturally sensitive care?

This article reviews the Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) Study that examined the association between multiple childhood traumas and health outcomes in adults. These findings have significant public health implications for individuals exposed to childhood trauma, and the authors present a vision for a children's mental health care and wellness infrastructure in the United States derived from the Report of the Surgeon General's Conference on Children's Mental Health.

Hispanics are now officially the largest minority in the United States. They are also highly prone to psychiatric disorders. What are the unique challenges of treating this ethnic population?

Results from three statewide studies of the clinical practices for assessing and treating children and adolescents with a primary diagnosis of conduct disorder, ADHD or bipolar I disorder demonstrate gender and ethnic differences only for those diagnosed with conduct disorder. The implications of these findings and their similarities to the literature on adults with psychiatric disorders are discussed.

Cognitive Therapy's Faulty Schema

The chief psychiatrist of the Community-University Health Care Clinic in Minneapolis reflects on what he's learned caring for refugees from Southeast Asia and Somalia. His experiences can educate others caring for immigrants and refugees.