News

The threat that a patient may commit an act of violence challenges psychiatrists to wrestle with the legal system as they attempt to successfully build a therapeutic alliance. Patient history, solid medical care, and the duties to warn and to protect must be successfully balanced to navigate the crossroads between psychiatry and the law.

Two new studies have raised questions about the placebo effect in clinical trials. Issues of methodology must be examined and the changing trends of placebo responses need to be evaluated.

Despite the widespread, long-standing notion that pregnancy is a time of happiness and emotional well-being, accumulating evidence suggests that pregnancy does not protect women from mental illness. Like their nonpregnant counterparts, pregnant women experience new onset and recurrent mood, anxiety and psychotic disorders.

A new report released by the Bush administration details the fragmentary nature of the current mental health care system. A few successful programs work despite the current system, not because of it.

I try to make him an ordinary patient with a list of drugs and diagnoses strung together in a necklace of initials: CAD, CABG, DM2, HTN.

There is no doubt that the number of applications for disability is rising. How should psychiatrists deal with patients who ask for disability without compromising the therapeutic alliance or the goals of therapy?

Mental health care professionals must be aware of the responsibilities and conflicts that present when patients are children and adolescents. Prescribing medications to minors and working with the child's guardian in treatment decisions are discussed.

Psychiatrists must identify ethical conflicts that arise among their practice, personal beliefs, and the needs and beliefs of the patient.

Discussions of psychiatric ethics often devolve into discussions of applicable law. Although ethics is often operationalized by a society's laws, ethics differs dramatically in its foundations, framework and purpose.

As the economic boom of the'90s slows down, more and more insurance companies are realizing less profit. As a result, physicians find it more difficult to get the malpractice insurance they need; when they do find it, it is usually at a higher cost.

How does a clinician deal with those patients for whom they can ultimately do nothing but help them stay numb for the majority of their days?

Is history repeating itself? Has China taken up the political abuse of psychiatry by adopting the methods that made the Soviet Union infamous? That is the claim now being made by human rights groups who are calling on organized psychiatry to intervene.

Each wound containsits own beauty--

New developments in neuroimaging and effective diagnostic tools can help obtain early diagnosis of and timely treatment for Alzheimer's disease.

The promise of natural products as possible sources of new treatments for Alzheimer's disease and other dementing illnesses is on the rise. Scientific evidence for the 13 dietary supplements most commonly used for memory impairment is analyzed and evaluated.

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a devastating and debilitating neurodegenerative condition, and the most common cause of dementia among the elderly. Despite considerable advances in the cellular and molecular biology of AD, however, little progress has been made in identifying the causes of the disease.

Patients with Alzheimer's disease and psychosis often have a more severe course of illness, with higher incidence of caregiver burden and hospitalization. Differentiating this disorder from Alzheimer's disease uncomplicated by psychosis is key to maximizing more positive outcomes.

Today, a person diagnosed with mental illness is as likely as anyone to be a parent or to plan on becoming one. Treatment approaches can be optimized by considering patients' concerns as they intersect with the parental role.

While the deaths of several students have figured prominently in recent news, studies show that college students actually have a lower rate of suicide than their nonstudent peers. What can be done to lower suicide rates even further?

Many activities that are not themselves diseases can cause diseases, and a foolish, self-destructive activity is not necessarily a disease. When we find a parallel between physiological processes and mental or personality processes, we can mistakenly assume the physiological process is what is really going on, and the mental process is just a passive result of the physical process.

Deficient omega-3 fatty acids can result in myriad pathological changes including altering the central nervous system. Their balance or imbalance changes receptor function, prostaglandin and cytokine production. Understanding the roles of these essential fatty acids is vital to remedying the fatty acid abnormalities found in a number of psychiatric disorders.

Treatment successes can be hampered by treatment-refractory mood disorders. Nine key concepts are outlined to help guide the treatment of these patients.

Clinical observations have shown that patients who do not respond to antidepressants may show dramatic improvement if atypical antipsychotics are added to their regimen. How can successful patient outcomes be maximized?

Addiction-as-disease or addiction-as-choice may be better defined by delineating initial experimentation with addictive drugs from ongoing drug use. Repeated exposure to addictive substances changes the molecules and neurochemistry of the addict. Addiction-as-disease accepts the responsibility of the health care professional to treat the patient and precludes the stigmatization that addiction is a choice.

Many patients, particularly those living in colder climates, can suffer from seasonal affective disorder (SAD). What causes SAD and what are the treatment options for these patients?

College students are far less likely to kill themselves than are nonstudent peers, according to a 10-year research study examining suicide rates at 12 Midwestern campuses.

More women than men are diagnosed with depression. Yet, men who are troubled by depression are also more likely to die, even when suicide is removed from the factors of consideration. Vascular depression, hyperintensities within the brain, physiological changes and late-life onset provide both insight and more questions into the nature of depression and this enigmatic paradox.

One more mouth rimmed in charcoal after an OD screams for release: to probe the night for the man who left her. No one pretends an interest: at 4 a.m. it's too late to care.

The patient, a young gay man who once lived for a time in Salt Lake City, describes his pursuers: Mormons who know where he is and are trying to kill him. As the clinic visit goes on, I see the doubt in his eyes when I explain my medication increase, and ask about it. He admits he can't be sure; his voices are saying that I'm a Mormon too. Only, with much persuasion and oversight will he comply with my prescription, because he trusts his case manager more than anyone else in the world.

September will be a difficult month for a long time.