Some doubt that even $650 million will go very far in speeding up the solution to the vast jigsaw puzzle known as neuroscience. According to this author, we have learned a great deal in basic science, but nothing at all that translates to better clinical care.
Cranial electrotherapy devices, soon to be only home-use device approved to treat depression, can be an essential adjunctive treatment to standard modalities of care for soldiers and veterans, says this psychiatrist.
Innovative approaches that advance our understanding of the mechanisms that confer risk for psychiatric illness in youths is the focus.
Is there something in young blood that holds the key to preventing or reversing cognitive decline and/or dementia associated with aging? The answer to that question is the subject of intense recent research. Details here.
Vascular surgeons, internists, and neurologists all exist-but why aren’t there any vascular psychiatrists? There certainly is a need.
Detainees in state and federal prisons have committed crimes that many of us can never forgive. But how we treat such people beyond the loss of freedom and certain rights is entirely about who we are as a society. More in this commentary.
Psychiatry must remain a profession defined by an organizing model of the mind, rather than by specific treatment techniques. Psychodynamic psychiatry offers such a model, and it is applicable to all psychiatric patients.
When I learned my first scale at 45 I knew I would never rip loose and free like the pros who started as teenagers, when time didn’t matter and practicing was just another form of play.
Regulatory bodies that oversee hospitals and graduate medical education have begun to place an ever growing importance on patient safety and quality improvement, from which psychiatry is not immune. More in this case study.
A variety of commonly used psychiatric medications increase the risk of heatstroke, leaving psychiatric patients in jails and prisons at risk.
A guide for helping patients understand heroin, its history, and how it impacts our communities.
Severe alcohol dependence and frequent relapses in this patient prompts his son to produce a durable power of attorney for health care. He demands that the physicians declare his father to lack decision-making capacity. More in this ethics case report.
Pica, a condition in which a person is compelled to eat non-food items such as dirt, paper, plaster, cigarette ashes, and other substances, is increasing in prevalence in adults. More in this patient education summary.
Amidst the anguish and heartbreak felt by the victims’ families, there are always two haunting questions: What motivates someone to kill strangers wholesale in a seemingly senseless way? And what, if anything, can we do to stop these tragedies from recurring?
New national cohort prospective study finds increased, though rare, cardiovascular risks associated with stimulant use in children and adolescents with ADHD. Is your patient at risk?
If you’ve never surfed the web for sites that critically examine psychiatry, I highly recommend it-though it’s not for the faint of heart.
More than 50 years have passed since One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest was published, and almost 40 years since the movie was released, but the issues seem as relevant today as they were back then. If you haven’t seen the film or have forgotten what you saw, see it again as soon as you can. Here's why.
When psychosocial treatments are delivered with high quality and fidelity, outcomes improve. That is the parity all of us should be fighting for. More in this commentary by NIMH Director Thomas Insel, MD.
Death penalty cases are extravagantly expensive and drain funding from programs that might actually reduce crime.
In Angst: Origins of Anxiety and Depression, Dr Jeffrey Kahn offers an alternative perspective on the evolution of common mental health disorders by considering the adaptive nature of symptoms that modern clinicians deem pathological.
An overview of special coverage on advances in the treatment of alcohol use disorders.
Very few heavy drinkers receive treatment and fewer still are prescribed medications with demonstrated efficacy. Here, a summary of current research, key takeaways, and highlights from a study on topiramate treatment for heavy drinkers by the lead author of that study.
In addition to the approval of novel medications for alcohol use disorders, the past several years have been marked by an emphasis on development, standardization, and dissemination of new behavioral therapies, including computer-based interventions.
There is increasing evidence and support for medications for alcohol use disorders to be used in regular clinical practice, and not to be limited to specialty substance abuse settings. Here, special considerations for pharmacological management.
This easy-to-read manual represents the author's concise views on how to achieve “more accurate” diagnoses with DSM-5, as well as when to avoid DSM-5 altogether.
As a psychiatrist, I have spent years training to help others deal with loss and suffering. When it is your own loss, however, you realize that you are sometimes powerless to shield yourself from your pain.
A brief psychological portrait of this psychiatrist/poet.
To run an effective telepsychiatry practice, a solid partnership between skilled personal on-site with patients and the psychiatrist on the other end of the call is a must.
In the US, 38,000 drug overdose deaths occur per year, and it is estimated that 75% are opioid-related. The good news is that addiction is a treatable disease. More in this discussion of opioid addiction, the use of naloxone, and Good Samaritan laws.
A limited sampling presented here lends no support to Dr Thomas Szasz’s claim that 19th century physicians regarded the term “mental disease” as merely a figure of speech; on the contrary, several prominent physicians of this era recognized such conditions as both real and debilitating.