Early Alzheimer's Diagnosis and Treatment: Future Hopes, Current Dangers
August 7th 2010The furor surrounding the recently proposed Alzheimer's Guidelines was provoked by their premature attempt to introduce early diagnosis, well before accurate tools are available. The same laudable, but currently clearly unrealistic ambition has propelled two of the worst suggestions for new diagnoses in DSM-5: Psychosis Risk and Mild Neurocognitive.
Lessons to Learn: Female Educators Who Sexually Abuse Their Students
August 6th 2010A small percentage of educators use their position of power to sexually exploit their students. While it is assumed that men are often responsible for this type of behavior, in recent years, a number of high-profile cases of female educator sexual misconduct have been covered by the media.
New Tests May Predict Suicide Risk
August 5th 2010Two recent studies by Harvard psychologists deliver promising data from 2 tests that may help clinicians predict suicidal behavior. The markers in these new tests involve a patient’s attention to suicide-related stimuli and the measure of association with death or suicide.
Screening for Depression in Clinical Practice: An Evidence-Based Guide
August 5th 2010Screening for Depression in Clinical Practice, which reviews the current body of knowledge on mental health screening in the medical setting, is a reference text written primarily for the consultation-liaison specialist, but it will be of use to the general psychiatrist and the interested primary care physician or medical specialist.
The Evolutionary Calculus of Depression
August 5th 2010The discipline of evolutionary psychology views modern human behaviors as products of natural selection that acted on the psychological traits of our ancestors. A subdiscipline, evolutionary psychiatry, tries to find evolutionary explanations for mental disorders.
Who Should Care About Geriatric Mental Health? Check the Mirror . . .
August 4th 2010Who should care about aging? This question is particularly germane in mental health. The articles in this Special Report remind us of the importance of understanding and focusing on the stresses, problems, and treatment-related issues in this population.
Voices of Bipolar Disorder: The Healing Companion:
August 4th 2010The contents of this volume are, as the cover emphasizes, “real stories from real people.” Clinicians who practice in a setting that allows time to really listen to patients have already heard these stories. These would be clinicians who have learned that listening to small details in a patient’s history helps one recognize patterns not described in the DSM.
FDA Lacks Desire for Flibanserin-But Does Hypoactive Sexual Desire Disorder Even Exist?
August 4th 2010Consider the predicament of Mrs M, a 38-year-old premenopausal mother of two. Mrs M tells her primary care physician, “I just don’t have a strong desire for sex. It’s been about 10 years now, and I hardly ever have sexual thoughts or fantasies.
45,000 More Psychiatrists, Anyone?
August 3rd 2010Houston, we have a problem. There is a critical shortage of psychiatrists. And the problem is not in Houston alone-it includes the entire state of Texas, and every other state in the union (Mid-town Manhattan, Boston’s Beacon Hill, and Sacramento Street in San Francisco might be exceptions).
TAR: Substance abuse and HIV formatting
August 3rd 2010The authors are affiliated with the section of General Internal Medicine at Yale University School of Medicine, in New Haven, CT. Dr. Tetrault is an assistant professor of medicine, Dr. Fiellin is an associate professor of medicine, and Dr. Sullivan is an assistant professor of medicine.
Social Interaction Increases Survival by 50%
July 31st 2010Recent findings indicate that social interaction is a key to living longer. Theoretical models have suggested that social relationships influence health through stress reduction and by more direct protective effects that promote healthy behavior.
High School Students With ADHD: The Group Most Likely to...Fizzle
July 28th 2010Adolescents with ADHD, conduct disorder, or who smoke cigarettes are less likely to finish high school on time and more likely to drop out altogether, researchers at the University of California, Davis, School of Medicine have found.
Integrity in CME: Understanding the Problem of Bias
July 24th 2010The varied proponents of models for the regulation of CME programs for physicians would all agree that the primary charge of these programs is to provide physicians with scientifically unbiased information on issues or knowledge that affects medical practice.
New Guidelines For Diagnosing Alzheimer's: Wishful Thinking... Dangerous Consequences
July 23rd 2010Previously, I have been quite critical of the DSM-5 suggestion to introduce a new diagnosis-- Minor Neurocognitive Disorder--on the grounds that it would create a large false positive problem and would lead to unnecessary worry and cost with no useful intervention.