Psychiatric Times Vol 25 No 6

Psychiatry is changing so rapidly that it seems impossible to predict 1 year ahead, let alone 10 years. In 1967, when my psychiatry training ended, the community psychiatry movement had just begun, DSM-II was in the works, and the biological revolution was still around the corner.

Despite an abundance of studies linking both traumatic experiences and anxiety disorders with eating disorders, relatively little has been reported on the prevalence of associated posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) or partial PTSD in patients with eating disorders.

Prognostication is a major part of what physicians do in many fields of medicine, and it is particularly relevant when a treatment or procedure is controversial or anxiety-provoking. Being able to accurately tell a prospective ECT patient how likely he or she is to respond would be helpful.

Anorexia nervosa is often complicated by devastating medical problems and may result in death. Although studies suggest a multifactorial cause for the disorder, treatment trials have yet to provide clinical guidance about how best to approach anorexia nervosa.

In the past several years, there has been an increasing awareness of the syndromal persistence of ADHD into adulthood. Once considered only a childhood disorder, ADHD has become increasingly recognized as a valid psychiatric disorder in adults.

Patients with low back pain (LBP) face many decisions, ranging from the nature and extent of the evaluation they should undergo to determining which treatments are likely to be most effective. These choices can be confusing not only to those who are in pain but also to their health care providers.

The Psychodynamic Diagnostic Manual1 (PDM) was created by a task force chaired by child psychiatrist Stanley Greenspan, MD, in cooperation with the American Psychoanalytic Association, the International Psychoanalytical Association, the Division of Psychoanalysis of the American Psychological Association, the American Academy of Psychoanalysis and Dynamic Psychiatry, and the National Membership Committee on Psychoanalysis in Clinical Social Work.

When historians try to understand why psychiatric diagnosis abandoned validity for the sake of reliability in the years surrounding the millennium, they will rely on The Loss of Sadness: How Psychiatry Transformed Normal Sorrow Into Depressive Disorder.

Traumatology has become an increasingly multidisciplinary field. Originally the province of psychiatry and clinical psychology, the field has now been enriched by the contributions of epidemiologists, neuroscientists, anthropologists, and historians.

Considering that the brain is increasingly being credited with having a role in everything we think, feel, and do, it was probably just a matter of time before it was postulated that religious belief has a neural substrate.

The March 27 announcement from the FDA that it is looking into a possible connection between Merck's biggest seller, Singulair (montelukast sodium) and suicidality once again raises questions about whether the agency is requiring close enough scrutiny during clinical trials of possible connections between new drugs and psychiatric effects.

One recent survey found that more than 1 in 4 patients who have mild cognitive impairment (MCI) were receiving cholinesterase inhibitors in Italian AD treatment centers even though these medications were being used "off-label."

Discovering the biological basis of major depressive disorder (MDD) could lead to improved medication and therapeutic treatment for patients with this condition. To date, the cause of MDD is not well understood, but researchers believe that elevated levels of the brain serotonin, 5-hydroxytryptamine (5-HT), may play a role.

Maintaining abstinence from alcohol "one day at a time" may be easier with appropriate treatment, but even with the best treatment it can become more difficult as the days add up.

Bulimia nervosa is a disorder with a complex cause. The disorder is most commonly seen in women, generally with onset in adolescence.

A syndrome described as purging following the ingestion of normal or small amounts of food in normal-weight persons has gained increasing attention in the field of eating disorders. Various terms have been used in the literature for this newly characterized syndrome, with purging disorder and eating disorder not otherwise specified-purging (only), or EDNOS-P, used most frequently.

Patients' beliefs about antidepressant drugs are a key factor driving adherence to therapy. According to a recent study, beliefs about efficacy and adverse effects, along with demographic attributes, are among the factors affecting antidepressant adherence.

Psychiatry has seen a transition from art to science in the past century and, largely because of 2 developments in the past several decades, this has also been the case for the field of eating disorders.

In this overview of pica, we review its causes and prevalence. In addition, we discuss some of the associated complications as well as current treatment strategies.

Dementia is characterized as a progressive and chronic decline in cognitive function, not limited to memory impairment, which significantly interferes with baseline daily functioning and frequently involves behavioral disturbances. It is known that behavioral problems in dementia negatively affect patients and caregivers. These disturbances lead to institutionalization, increased costs and caregiver burden, and a poorer prognosis.

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.