Response to: “Psychiatric Symptoms Can be Understood Even When These Symptoms Cannot Be Explained”
July 16th 2010Dr Muller, in his piece “Psychiatric Symptoms Can be Understood Even When These Symptoms Cannot Be Explained,” makes a number of assertions about DSM-III and its successors that reflect a mischaracterization of its “descriptive approach.”
Psychiatric Symptoms Can Be Understood Even When These Symptoms Cannot Be Explained
July 16th 2010What is transparent to one person may be opaque to another. It is clear to me that before symptoms can be used to make a valid psychiatric diagnosis the meaning and context of these symptoms must be taken into account. Many clinicians do not see it that way. Neither did the DSM-III and its subsequent editions.
DSM-5: Continuing the Confusion about Aging, Alzheimer’s and Dementia
July 15th 2010Since the early twentieth century, when Alois Alzheimer and Emil Kraepelin constructed it as a unified clinical-pathological entity, Alzheimer’s disease has been both one of the most stable and one of the most problematic neuropsychiatric entities.
Understanding Mental Disorders-No Easy Answers
July 14th 2010The basic problem is that the body is extremely complicated and most diseases don't arise from anything resembling simple genetic causes. We are the miraculous result of an exquisitely wrought DNA engineering that has to get trillions and trillions of steps just right. But any super-complicated system will have its occasional chaotic glitch.
Marijuana, Depressed Dads, and Behavioral Abnormalities Quiz
July 9th 2010Is there growing evidence suggesting that paternal depression is associated with interpersonal problems with the mother and maternal depressive symptoms? Can severe psychiatric disturbances result from paraneoplastic disorders? Find out the answers to these questions in this week's quiz.
So Much Mental Illness -- So Few Psychiatrists in Iraq
July 8th 2010After years of war, more and more Iraquis are seeking medical care for trauma-induced mental illness. However, demand for such treatment far outpaces supply. In a country of 30 million people, only 100 psychiatrists are available to offer care.
Mental Health Parity Law Under Attack
July 7th 2010Business groups and leading behavioral managed care companies have mounted a multifront attack on the new mental health parity law. The Paul Wellstone and Pete Domenici Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act (MHPAEA) went into effect on January 1, 2010, for employer plans starting after that date. However, companies have been awaiting a delayed final rule interpreting the terms of the MHPAEA.
The Rise and Fall of the Biopsychosocial Model
July 7th 2010Ultimately, Dr Ghaemi endorses a pluralistic approach and a “method-based psychiatry” in contrast to the eclecticism of the BPS. This method-based approach recognizes that one method may be more correct than others on the basis of empirical data and conceptual soundness (the “less is more” view), versus the BPS model, in which all methods can be equally correct (the “more is better” view).
Taking the Helm With Gratitude-To Boldly Go
July 7th 2010It is rather difficult for me to avoid turning this greeting article into an homage to Dr Pies. My mirroring of his farewell piece2 with my title and preliminary quotes was meant to signify my great respect for him. How much I have learned and benefited from his wisdom, patience, knowledge, and compassion over the past 4 or so years cannot be measured.
Obama, the Oil Spill, and the Magic of Righteous Anger
July 7th 2010Many Americans seem angry at President Obama’s seeming lack of anger over the BP fiasco. Frustration with the environmental calamity in the Gulf is perfectly understandable. Anger with those who should have foreseen and prevented this horrendous situation is also understandable, and-up to a point-quite justifiable.
Normality Is an Endangered Species: Psychiatric Fads and Overdiagnosis
July 6th 2010Fads in psychiatric diagnosis come and go and have been with us as long as there has been psychiatry. The fads meet a deeply felt need to explain, or at least to label, what would otherwise be unexplainable human suffering and deviance.