News

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.

A recently published a meta-analysis showed that diagnoses generated from clinical evaluations often do not agree with the results of structured and semi-structured interviews-together called standardized diagnostic interviews (SDI).1 Such a study could easily be overlooked as another dry and “methodological” investigation. Nevertheless, the implications of this meta-analysis are enormous

Almost the first memory I have of a physician is our family doctor at my bedside, leaning over to press his warm fingers against my neck and beneath my jaw. I’m 5, maybe 6 years old. I have a fever and a sore throat, and Dr Gerace is carefully palpating my cervical and submandibular lymph nodes. In my family, Dr Gerace’s opinion carried a lot of weight. It was the 1950s, and my mother did not quite trust those new-fangled antibiotics. She usually tried to haggle with the doctor over the dose-“Can’t the boy take just half that much?”-but even my mother would ultimately bow to Dr Gerace’s considered opinion.

There is a difference of opinion among psychiatrists whether it is time to restructure the APA to a “leaner and meaner” organization where activities and functions by necessity have to be cut back because of reduced income.

The first drafts of DSM5 were posted 2 months ago, allowing the field and the public a first glimpse into what had previously been an inexplicably secretive process. Today is the last day for public comment on these drafts. This is a plea for continued openness and iterative interchange in the next steps in the preparation of DSM5.

DSM5 first went wrong because of excessive ambition; then stayed wrong because of its disorganized methods and its lack of caution. Its excessive and elusive ambition was to aim at a "paradigm shift.”

Oregon’s Governor Kulongoski has vetoed a bill that would have allowed psychologists to practice clinical medicine without adequate training-otherwise known by the euphemism of "prescribing." The Governor's rationale was precisely the one opponents of the bill, such as myself, had advocated.

Dr Seeman makes a compelling case for using web-based communications to connect with your patients in real time. She outlines 10 practice tips to help you avoid liability and security risks.

Help in Clinical Decision Making

There are limited data on clinical and biological predictors of antipsychotic drug response. The ability to identify those patients who will respond well to psychotropic drug treatment or who will be at a higher risk for adverse effects could help clinicians avoid lengthy ineffective drug trials and limit patients’ exposure to those effects. Moreover, better predictability of treatment response early in the course of a patient’s illness can result in enhanced medication adherence, a significant predictor of relapse prevention.

Pilots will no longer be banned from flying if they are taking an SSRI antidepressant.

Mark Twain observed that "the past may not repeat itself, but it sure does rhyme." An unfortunate rhyme in psychiatric history is the recurrence of fad diagnoses. Childhood Bipolar Disorder is the most dangerous current bubble, with a remarkable forty-fold inflation in just one decade.

Avoid Surprises and Unintended Consequences