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What does the new set of U.S. Public Health Service guidelines for treating tobacco dependence say? Should everyone, regardless of mental health status, receive treatment?

The authors argue that adopting a single payer system would be like jumping out of the fire and into the frying pan. They look at three perspectives-the doctor's, the patient's and the health care policy-maker's.

The online contents of the April 2006 issue of Psychiatric Times.

A startled Malay woman with latah mocks the photographer.Source: Simons RC (1983)

multiple sclerosis, MS, Tysabri, natalizumab, progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy, PML

Memory, Perimenopause

ADHD, epilepsy, depression

spinal cord injuries, SCI, neural network, axon stretch, stroke, neurorehabilitation, biomarkers, cystatin C, ALS, amyloid lateral sclerosis, MS, multiple sclerosis

Insurance, Medicare, Pay-for-performance, P4P

brain tumor, neuroma, tumorigenesis, cell phone use

Spinal cord injury, Oxidative stress, Acrolein, Hydralazine

stroke, stenting, stent deployment, Wingspan Stent System

Until recently, direct-to-consumer advertisements for selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) touted their ability to correct a chemical imbalance, most memorably through the cartoon "ovoid creature" that thanked a drug for improving its mood. Over the past few years, consumer groups and patients have implored the FDA to require more accurate wording in ads. This has resulted in the appearance in ads of such qualifiers as "helps to restore," "appears to work," "may be related to," and "presumed to be linked."

Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, SSRIs, Suicidality, Depression, Major depressive disorder, Neonatal abstinence syndrome

Although Alzheimer disease (AD) is a global problem, it is good to analyze the impact of AD on a local level. Tim Lynch, PhD, an economics consultant and adjunct professor of health care finance at Florida State University, has done just that in a report released in March by the Cure Alzheimer's Now Coalition.

Anxiety and depression are the most often cited problems related to a cancer diagnosis, because receiving this diagnosis is often very frightening. Feeling sad, worrying relentlessly, and being unable to experience pleasure often lead people to feel that they may be on the path to losing their minds. However, in the past few years a more subtle phenomenon has been identified related to cognitive deficits allegedly associated with chemotherapy treatment, sometimes called chemobrain.

The fiscal 2007 budget that PresidentBush proposed in early February keepsa tight lid on most domestic spendingprograms, including those at the Centersfor Mental Health Services (CMHS)and the National Institute of MentalHealth (NIMH). Budgets for both willactually decrease for the second yearin a row unless Congress steps in.

The renaming of consultation-liaison psychiatry as psychosomaticmedicine, a new formal subspecialtyof psychiatry, may require someadjustment in our understanding ofthese terms. Both consultation-liaisonpsychiatry and psychosomatic medicinehave focused on treatment and researchof illnesses with mind-body interactions.Despite considerable overlap,consultation-liaison psychiatry hastraditionally been associated with treatmentand clinical research of comorbidmental disorders of the medicallyill, while psychosomatic medicine hasbeen associated with research into thephysiologic mechanisms underlyingmind-body interactions and classicalpsychosomatic diseases such as hypertension,asthma, and ulcerative colitis.

Physicians who use electroconvulsivetherapy (ECT) need tobe vigilant for unstable medicalconditions before and during the courseof treatment. This brief review is intendedto highlight some basic principlesand specific concerns that maybe encountered in the use of ECT inpatients who have comorbid medicalillness.

Practitioners understand the wholeness and unity of their patients. Instead of being considered isolated organ systems or enzyme cycles, patients are understood as coherent entities composed of coordinated and interrelated processes and systems. This fundamental understanding guidesinvestigative and clinical care approaches in psychosomatic medicine.

The fiscal 2007 budget that PresidentBush proposed in early February keepsa tight lid on most domestic spendingprograms, including those at the Centersfor Mental Health Services (CMHS)and the National Institute of MentalHealth (NIMH). Budgets for both willactually decrease for the second yearin a row unless Congress steps in.

This book is recommended not only for therapists but also for patients in therapy and others seeking enjoyable, fascinating reading and insight into their own marital relationships.

While teen drug use continues to decline, it is the baby boomers who are suffering the greatest losses from substance abuse, and whose plight is largely overlooked by policy makers.

The 5 papers in this Special Report on neuropsychiatry provide compelling evidence for the renaissance of neuropsychiatry as a clinical discipline. Wehave every reason to hope that this will lead to a better understanding of the complex interactions between brain and behavior and will reduce the artificial distinction between neurology and psychiatry.

Poetry of the Times--Good Fathers.

There is no shortage of evidence for the notion that society places a low value on the treatment of mental illness. Have psychiatrists bought into the attitude that mental health is less valuable than physical health?

Prescriptions for psychotropic drugs for adolescents increased by 250% between 1994 and 2001. Researchers note that this trend coincides with the 6-fold increase in direct-to-consumer drug advertising.

A black box warning about increased suicidality in pediatric patients is now required for all antidepressant medications. This column reviews a number of studies on this topic that were published after the FDA advisory was issued.

First described more than 500 years ago, phantom limb pain affects as many as 50% to 80% of patients who undergo amputation. Although it is easy to recognize and diagnose, its cause remains unclear, it can be difficult to manage successfully, and health care professionals often do not address it.

In the late 18th century, a French surgeon named Pouteau performed 120 successive lithotomies with an extraordinarily low mortality rate. His secret was the use of innovations used widely today. Why weren't his methods more widely adopted by other physicians in his time?