News

A recent opinion piece on the cover of the November 2010 issue of the Psychiatric Times had many in my residency class talking.

Some months ago, I received a stern admonition from my family doctor. My fasting blood sugar of 99 mg/dL was “right on the border”, he said, and I had better work on bringing it down. “But,” I protested, “when I was in medical school (in the 70s), the normal FBS range went up to 110 mg/dL!” "Well,” he replied a bit huffily, “they changed the criteria!”

Diminishing libido is a symptom of depression, but antidepressants do not always restore sexual interest. Loss of desire may be the cause of depression, not its consequence. Dr Levine explains the nature of sexual desire and its relationship to arousal including the various biogenic, psychogenic, interpersonal, and cultural factors that contribute to problems associated with sexual desire.

The articles by Arline Kaplan and Hagop Akiskal, MD, in the November 2011 issue of Psychiatric Times highlight the race to patent bio-tests for schizophrenia and depression.

The users’ revolt against DSM-5 marches on and just became a much, much bigger parade.

Perinatal anxiety disorders are common and pose risks to women and their offspring. Here, Laura Miller, MD, speaks briefly on panic disorder, PTSD, and OCD during pregnancy and post-partum, and she offers strategies for crafting effective treatment plans.

Mood and cognitive disorders are major public health problems, and care for patients with such conditions is of growing importance as the population ages. Here, geriatric psychiatrist Jeffrey Lyness, MD, of the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry in New York offers teaching points about the evaluation of depression in older persons.

Terrence Malick’s The Tree of Life is not easy entertainment, but for psychiatrists who might welcome an encounter with a brilliant, uncompromising mind, The Tree of Life is enthralling.

“If you were a ship, where would you sail?” . . . “What is your favorite hockey team?” and “What will you do if you don’t get into medical school?”

A new Medicaid demonstration program slated to begin next year will pilot a solution to the problem of “psychiatric boarding,” which has plagued general hospitals for many years.

In theory, psychiatrists possess no special skills for determining capacity of a patient to accept or refuse medical care, yet a large percentage of a psychosomatic physician’s work nonetheless involves capacity evaluations.

Currently, there are 350,000 Americans who receive maintenance dialysis for renal failure, and this predominantly elderly population with multiple comorbidities is growing.

This article provides background information on the FGIDs for psychiatrists and a review of recent research on the biopsychosocial mechanisms that contribute to the illness experience.

News flash From Medscape Medical News-“APA Answers DSM-5 Critics”-a defense of DSM-5 offered by Darrel A. Regier, MD, vice-chair of the DSM-5 Task Force.

Until recently, most people believed that hoarders were eccentric people who died surrounded by a lifetime collection of stuff. Hoarding in families was cloistered in a vault of family secrets or passed off as an individual peculiarity.

Michael Blumenfield, MD is the Sidney E. Frank Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at New York Medical College; a past speaker of the Assembly of the American Psychiatric Association; and President-Elect of the American Academy of Psychoanalysis and Dynamic Psychiatry. He writes a blog, www.PsychiatryTalk.com, and contributes to the Psychiatric Times blog, “Couch in Crisis.” He is in private practice in Woodland Hills, Calif.

When it comes to DSM-5, experience has proven conclusively that the APA will not attend to the science, evaluate the risks, or listen to reason. A user’s revolt has become the last and only hope for derailing the worst of the DSM-5 suggestions.

Psychache (sīk-āk), a neologism coined by suicidologist Edwin Shneidman, is unbearable psychological pain-hurt, anguish, soreness, and aching.

“I’m so cold, so weary in my abandonment. Go and find my Mother, O Wind. Take me to the house I never knew.”

Biomarkers for mental disorders is a field whose time has come. Optimists will say within a few years, pessimists might say a decade or beyond.

When working with patients who are at high risk for relapse or misuse of prescription medications, careful documentation of the informed consent process is a helpful risk management tool.

Researchers have tried lots of different kinds of tests from EEGs to blood-based biomarkers. Now genetic tests are a very popular means of trying to understand different psychiatric disorders.

Last week I challenged the American Psychiatric Association (APA) to end its silence in the face of widespread criticism and finally to mount its belated public defense of DSM-5. These are the 5 questions that cry out for straight answers.

Both the DSM-5 Web site and Psychiatry News have recently heralded the proposed DSM-5 revision for diagnosis of personality disorders.

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