Major Depressive Disorder Quiz
July 20th 2010Efficacy and safety of bupropion and SSRIs in comorbid depression and restless legs syndrome? Which psychiatric scale has proven useful for tracking depression when Electroconvulsive Therapy is involved? These questions and more in this week's Mine Your Mind quiz.
Alzheimer’s Disease Without Dis-ease? New Conundrums for Psychiatric Diagnosis and Public Health
July 19th 2010Researchers who have spent their careers studying schizophrenia and mood disorders might be forgiven a bit of “biomarker envy.” At long last, it seems that the neurologists and neuropsychiatrists have developed some fairly sensitive and specific “lab tests” for Alzheimer’s Disease (AD).
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.