Version 2 - VITAL Meet the faculty
June 29th 2011Xavier Amador, PhD, is a clinical psychologist and an internationally sought-after speaker. Dr. Amador has over 25 years of experience working with adults, families, and couples. In addition to continuing to his private practice in New York City, Dr. Amador is the Founder and Director of the LEAP Institute. LEAP is for therapists, family members, law enforcement officers, and anyone seeking to break through an impasse with someone who is convinced they are right and you are wrong. He and the faculty at LEAP conduct regional seminars for couples and other groups.
Drs McGlashan and Woods Respond to Dr Feinberg
June 29th 2011Dr Feinberg takes exception to much of what we wrote, or what he thinks we wrote, in our article “Early Antecedents and Detection in Schizophrenia”. We will do our best to reply to his criticisms of what we did write and try to point out where he is shadowboxing at issues that he has created but that we do not hold or endorse.
Obama Drug Misuse Strategy Targets Physician Education
June 29th 2011The White House Office of National Drug Control Policy will work with Congress to pass new legislation requiring all physicians with Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) registrations to undergo mandatory education on the use of long-acting and extended-release opioids.
A Look at the Ethical, Legal, and Clinical Issues Associated With Information Technology
June 28th 2011New technologies pose challenges in the need to maintain boundaries and confidentiality. The same boundaries and ethical standards that existed in the 20th century must be thoughtfully applied with all new and developing technologies of the 21st century.
Are We Training Psychiatrists to Provide Only Medication Management?
June 28th 2011If psychiatry reduces or abandons its engagement with psychology and social science in understanding and treating mental disorders and focuses predominantly on the biological factors of mental disorders, what will our role as psychiatrists be?
Emil Kraepelin on Cultural and Ethnic Factors in Mental Illness
June 23rd 2011In the sixth edition of his famous 2-volume textbook Psychiatrie, which appeared in 1899, Emil Kraepelin introduced the by now well-known distinction between dementia praecox (soon to be called schizophrenia) and manic-depressive illness.
After 40 Years (in the Wilderness), Where is Our Promised Land?
June 22nd 2011I just attended the 40th year reunion of my medical school class at Yale. As is common at these 5-year reunions, we compare our careers and the progress of medicine, although this time more of the focus seemed to be on our personal lives and our new Medicare cards.
Alzheimer’s Redux: A Preliminary Take on the New Diagnostic Criteria
June 17th 2011If telling patients they have “pre-clinical Alzheimer’s” or “MCI due to Alzheimer’s Disease”-absent effective treatment-produces more emotional suffering than it relieves, a difficult ethical question arises; namely, can such a disclosure be justified under the foundational principle of non-malfeasance?
Infidelity: Add Another Brick to the Wall
June 15th 2011Amidst sexting congressmen, philandering French IMF directors, and gallivanting governors, I suspect many psychiatrists have been accosted with questions from friends and colleagues. Such questions generally conform to some permutation of “What makes a person do that?”