Psychiatrists Must Prevent Suicide, Not Provide It
The current Tree of Medicine is rooted in its Hippocratic soil. There are moral absolutes that our profession should stand up for, in spite of legislative or popular pressure, say the authors.
Collaborative Care Meets Hospital Medicine: Proactive Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry
November 14th 2019Mental illness accounts for a third of all years lived with disability and is associated with twice the relative risk of all-cause mortality. An estimated 8 million deaths are attributable to mental disorders every year, with two-thirds due to comorbid medical illness.
The Goldwater Rule: What Would Freud and Frankl Have Done?
November 7th 2019How we respond to political issues in society is the quintessential ethical challenge mental health clinicians face today. Should psychiatrists set aside diagnosis of public figures amidst sweeping changes in the United States?
Understanding and Treating Avoidant Restrictive Food Intake Disorder in Children and Adolescents
October 31st 2019Avoidant restrictive food intake disorder, or ARFID, is a newly introduced eating disorder in DSM-5. Given that the disorder was introduced in 2013, it remains unclear how prevalent ARFID is in the general population.
Treater, Disability Assessor, or Forensic Expert: A Trap in Disability Claims
The treater who assumes a dual role as either disability examiner or forensic expert faces ethical risks because of the inherent binds in the roles.
PAS Versus Involuntary Commitment: Is There a Moral Dilemma?
Physician-assisted suicide violates the norms of Hippocratic medical ethics. Involuntary hospitalization to prevent suicide affirms those norms, according to the authors.
Mania and Hypomania: The Latest Thinking on Duration of Episodes and Other Features
October 29th 2019An international task force of experts in the diagnosis and treatment of bipolar disorder was recently convened to address concerns about DSM-5 criteria, particularly the definitions of manic episodes. The DSM’s duration criteria is an area of concern.
Chaos Theory With a Human Face: Extended Version
October 28th 2019"Go out into the real world; work in prisons, in run-down towns with high unemployment or with refugees or in remote areas. Go overseas or into underprivileged parts of your own country. And that is how you learn about real psychiatry," says Niall McLaren, MBBS, FRANZCP, in the next installment of Conversations in Critical Psychiatry.