News

Daniel J. Carlat, MD, is associate clinical professor of psychiatry at Tufts University School of Medicine in Boston and Editor-in-Chief of The Carlat Psychiatry Report-a monthly newsletter on psychopharmacology that is widely read by psychiatrists and nurses in the United States. His blog, The Carlat Psychiatry Blog, is consistently ranked as one of the 10 most influential health blogs by Wikio and has received an award for outstanding mental health journalism by the Psych Central Web site.

Allen Frances, MD, was the chair of the DSM-IV Task Force and of the department of psychiatry at Duke University School of Medicine, Durham, NC. He is currently professor emeritus at Duke.

James L. Knoll IV, MD, is Editor-in-Chief of Psychiatric Times. He is an associate professor of psychiatry at the SUNY Upstate Medical Center in Syracuse, where he is director of forensic psychiatry, and director of the forensic psychiatry fellowship at Central New York Psychiatric Center. Dr Knoll provides forensic consults for the criminal justice system and the private sector. He has authored numerous articles and book chapters and is coeditor of the Correctional Mental Health Report. He contributes frequently to Psychiatric Times and is series editor of the column Psychiatry & The Law. He writes a forensic psychiatry blog, The Edge Effect.

Michael Blumenfield, MD, is The Sidney E. Frank Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at New York Medical College. He is a Past Speaker of the Assembly of the American Psychiatric Association. Dr Blumenfield lives and practices in Woodland Hills, Calif, where he also writes the weekly blog, PsychiatryTalk.com.

H. Steven Moffic, MD, after an award-filled career focusing on the underserved, retired from clinical work and his Tenured Professorship at the Medical College of Wisconsin on June 30, 2012. However, he will continue to write, present, and serve on boards devoted to this-and related-ethical concerns. Dr Moffic’s book The Ethical Way: Challenges and Solutions for Managed Behavioral Healthcare (Jossey-Bass, 1997) was the first on the subject. He has edited ethics columns for 3 psychiatric newsletters.

Doctors at Duke University Medical Center have documented a connection between fluctuations in the stock market and heart attack frequency.

Today, May 5, I'll be turning 64. Normally, that would not seem to be a birthday of particular distinction. Why is it for me?

By teaching those with PTSD to manage the stress and pain associated with the disorder's recurring horrors and disturbances, Edna Foa , MD has earned a spot on Time Magazine’s top 100 list of the most influential people in the world.

Individuals with a past history of chronic psychiatric illness are often given poor prognoses that can limit their therapeutic horizons for further treatment. This pessimism may be misplaced as is demonstrated by the case of Jay, age 71, and Kay, age 65. The couple presented at the Loyola Sexual Dysfunction Clinic in a program consisting of 7 weekly sessions of 5 hours each with 2 trainee therapists.

In 5 minutes, so much can be accomplished.

I often get asked if practical consequences should play an important role in DSM5 decisions. It was posed again yesterday in response to my blog "Bipolar II Revisited" which tangentially raised the issue.

He was just, as they sayIn that part of the world,An itty bitty guy--no more than five four if that.

A documentary, “Hitler’s Children,” now in the works, may be of considerable interest to psychiatrists.

The New York Times describes it as the latest online phenomenon.

The recently posted first draft of DSM-5 has suggested a whole new category of mental disorders called the "Behavioral Addictions." The category would begin life in DSM-5 nested alongside the substance addictions and it would start with just one disorder (gambling).

Insurance restrictions sometimes make for strange bedfellows. My story begins with a phone call from a man about to lose his job. He said that he had been placed on probation and was about to be fired. He asked if he could see me. We met the following day.

Sometimes you spot a serious problem and figure out a very well-intended solution, only to discover eventually that your solution created as much trouble as the original problem. The workers on DSM5 have spotted an enormously worrying problem-the wild overdiagnosis of childhood bipolar disorder (BD) which has led to a massive increase in the use of antipsychotic and mood stabilizing medications in children and teenagers.

I am writing to commend Flavie Waters, MD, for her recent article on auditory hallucinations in psychiatric illness.1 She covers the topic well. Her article is timely and I hope it will contribute to a badly needed reorientation of our field toward the positive symptoms of schizophrenia. However, I am compelled to point out an error of citation that is not the author’s fault.

Positive results from a new study on the drug 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA)--also known as ecstasy--may give new hope to returning war troops with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

In New York, there is a happily ever after for some patients with mental illness.

There has always been controversy over what consitutes a psychiatric disorder and the best treatment options for a specific disorder.

DSM5 suggests 2 changes that would make it much easier for an adult to get a first time diagnosis of Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD): 1) reducing the number of symptoms required for adults from 6 to 3; and 2) relaxing the requirement that the onset of symptoms must have occurred before age 7 (by allowing the onset to be up to age 12).

As a psychiatrist who has cancer, I have developed a deep understanding of the ways in which our training can help us help patients who find themselves forced to deal with the complicated emotional aspects that accompany this disease. My hope is that my insights will help psychiatrists as they wrestle with the problems that plague their patients who are coping with this difficult disease.