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Treatment of anxiety can be a challenge, since the mainstay of treatment may adversely affect the course of bipolar disorder.

The Cape Cod Symposium on Addictive Disorders is a large annual meeting dedicated to continuing education and networking in the field of addictions.

Psychosis Risk (AKA attenuated psychotic symptoms disorder) has always had 3 strikes against it.

Regretfully, if we are to judge the progress of DSM-5 by the incoherence of a recent commentary by the Chair and Vice-chair of the DSM-5 Task Force, we have a lot to worry about.

Hoarding has broad-reaching implications, including a substantial public health burden linked to occupational impairment, poor physical health, and demand for social services.

It is our responsibility as psychiatrists to educate the media and the public in general.

What is your experience with patients who may decide to quit multiple substances simultaneously? Is it overambitious?

A dark cloud surrounds the silver lining of having one psychiatrist in a position of almost unopposed influence . . .

In 2009, Maj Matthew P. Houseal, a psychiatrist, was in Iraq attempting to help suicidal soldiers when a fellow soldier killed him, a clinical social worker and 3 others at a combat stress center near Bagdad. Paradoxically, Houseal’s accused killer, US Army Sgt John Russell, had earlier threatened to take his own life, according to witnesses’ testimony during a recent investigative Article 32 hearing.

Describing herself as “strangled by debt” and “unable to deal with [the] school system” that had provided education for her special-needs son, psychiatrist Margaret Jensvold, MD, recently killed her 13-year-old son and then committed suicide.

For prescribing psychiatrists who want to offer treatment alternatives to patients who prefer to avoid medication, the evidence is clear that psychotherapy is an effective choice. Even in cases in which medication is accepted, the evidence suggests that psychotherapy may significantly improve patient outcomes.

A therapist forgets about a patient’s appointment. She becomes abnormally angry, unusually forgiving, atypically bored, or excessively voyeuristic. What is going on? The therapist’s countertransference is making itself known.

Dear Mrs. -- You have asked me about the cause of your mood disorder, and whether it is due to a "chemical imbalance."

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We are living in an evidence-based era in all fields of medicine, including psychiatry. For the most part, this represents progress because clinicians can start to base their interventions on treatments that have been supported by the results of research studies.

Psychotherapy outcomes and the mechanisms of change that are related to its effects have traditionally been investigated on the psychological and social levels, by measuring changes in symptoms, psychological abilities, personality, or social functioning.

When we write about psychotherapy, we usually write about the patients and their cognitions and psychodynamics; or we talk about the techniques of psychotherapy, schools of psychotherapy, and efficacy studies. These are all songs of psychotherapy.

The book emerges as a skillful interweaving of 3 elements: an introduction to the Jewish tradition, a set of down-to-earth case examples in practical ethics, and a fine running commentary about Jewish lore and how we can all reflect on it and be enriched by it.

I was ready. In my mind I rehearsed agreeable sermons about diet, exercise, and MMR vaccines I’d use to shepherd my courteous new patients to wellness. It’s like I wanted to replace my memories of psychiatric patients with the most wholesome medical facts.

Doubt and confusion as to where ADHD fits into the general spectrum of illness further feeds the general perception that ADHD is a socially constructed disorder rather than a valid neurobiological disorder

Psychology Professor Marc Hauser, who last year was found solely responsible for 8 counts of scientific misconduct following an internal investigation, has resigned from his tenured position at Harvard University.

Newly developed blood tests for schizophrenia and for depression designed to augment current diagnostic approaches have attracted increased attention at recent major scientific meetings.

The viola section hears her first . . . Then the conductor tilts his head

Bob Spitzer was prophetic 4 years ago when he warned that the closed DSM-5 process would lead to a flawed DSM-5 product. He advised the DSM-5 leadership to end its secrecy-- that a lack of openness would inevitably would lead to bad decisions not amenable to self-correction.

I never would have entered the DSM-5 controversy were it not for two of its proposals that risk furthering the already frightening overuse of antipsychotic medication, particularly in children and teenagers.

SDBP 2011 Annual Meeting will take place September 16-19, 2011, at the Marriott Rivercenter, San Antonio, Texas.

Psychiatric Times presents exclusive coverage of the American Psychiatric Association Conference. Here you will find the latest news, resources, and updates from the 2012 APA Conference, the 165th Annual Meeting of the American Psychiatric Association, May 5-9, 2012, in Philadelphia.

Many will recall “The Decade of the Brain,” when President George H.W. Bush declared that the 1990s would be dedicated to research on neuroscience. If there were landmark findings from that decade, I’m not sure what they were.

The recent death of Amy Winehouse has brought the question of why some people get addicted to alcohol and/or drugs and others don’t.

Polypharmacy has become so ubiquitous that more accidental overdoses are now caused by prescription drugs than by street drugs. The question naturally arises whether this almost routine use of multiple psychotropic medications make sense?