News

As the population ages, psychiatrists will need to take a more proactive role in preventing, diagnosing and treating elder abuse. This article looks at the definition of elder abuse and the history of reporting it, research findings on the effects of abuse on mortality, and needs for the future.

In addition to reports on psychotherapeutic agents now available and anticipated in the United States, the presentations at the 22nd annual Collegium Internationale Neuropsychopharmacologicum (CINP) Congress, held from July 8 to 13, in Brussels, provided a unique view of varied investigational compounds and approaches outside our country.

Arguing that participation in any aspect of death penalty cases is an ethical conflict for physicians-and specifically psychiatrists-Dr. Freedman calls for physicians' organizations to join the American Bar Association's goal of a moratorium on executions. The author himself opposes the death penalty.

New studies show that the elderly may be more resilient in the face of natural disasters than younger victims. Preparing older patients is key to improving their coping skills.

Playing God in the Hospital - Poetry of the Times

Letter to a Young Psychiatrist: Confessions of a Psychodynamic Attending

Charles River Hospital, a 62-bed psychiatric facility in Wellesley, Mass., followed the trend of dozens of institutions, medical groups and some insurance companies last June. The hospital filed for bankruptcy.

Known as "the cancer of mental illness," schizophrenia can core a life, robbing a previously well-functioning person of what made the person uniquely them.

After this Tibetan monk's release, he fled across the Nepali border, made his way to India and then to New York City, where he was referred to a program for survivors of torture.

Show of Force - Poetry of the Times

As previously discussed, new research has made us look much more closely at the influence of religion and spirituality on overall health. Now more than 30 psychiatric residencies including Harvard, Baylor, and Georgetown provide focused training on addressing patients' religious/spiritual beliefs.

What a Psychiatrist Remembers - Poetry of the Times

Between 50% and 80% of people with mental disorders smoke cigarettes. Are the tobacco companies targeting this population, and are mental health care facilities promoting the use of tobacco? What are psychiatrists' responsibilities in the overall health of their patient?

Foreign Landscapes - Poetry of the Times

The Way He Managed - Poetry of the Times

Transference - Poetry of the Times

Once the distortions are cleared away, most patients who come to the emergency room tell stories that seem to grow out of the problems they claim to have and the pain they claim to feel.

Covert Operations - Poetry of the Times

Bipolar disorder (BD) in children and adolescents is severe and has significant adverse effects on academic, social and family functioning. The high rate of relapse and suicide attempts in youth with BD makes effective treatment essential.

Radium Girls - Poetry of the Times

The existing literature on the hoarding of animals by human beings has been written by officials of the Humane Society of the United States and animal shelter operators. Only one case series appears in medical or psychological literature.

Places We Have Met - Poetry of the Times

The Mask - Poetry of the Times

Sexuality is a very important life issue for the elderly, but is often overlooked, according to Cynthia L. Ardito, Psy.D. Ardito frequently speaks on this subject to various health care provider groups in the United States and Canada.

A man named Edward Charles Allaway walked into a college library at California State University in Fullerton, Calif., and, using a .22-caliber rifle, killed seven people and wounded two others in 10 minutes. One of the few individuals who was successfully defended with a plea of insanity, Allaway was ultimately committed to a state psychiatric institution. This incident is not ripped from today's headlines, but from newspapers with a 1976 dateline.

In a stunning move made to avoid a trial, an October 1997 settlement totaling $10.75 million ended one of the most controversial and widely publicized lawsuits ever brought against a psychiatrist by a former patient who later retracted memories of recovered abuse. Patty Burgus and other family members had sued Bennett G. Braun, M.D., an internationally renowned expert in the field of dissociative identity disorder, and the prestigious Rush-Presbyterian-St. Luke's Hospital in Chicago, among others. The suit claimed that bizarre recollections of satanic ritual abuse and other trauma, which were recovered during the course of psychiatric treatment, were false and the result of negligent care over a six-year period.

Intrigued by preliminary research indicating that omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids found in fish, fish oil and flaxseed may ameliorate symptoms in bipolar disorder (BD), schizophrenia and other psychiatric disorders, investigators have launched a series of double-blind trials evaluating fatty acids as adjunctive treatment. This article will discuss studies on bipolar disorder.

The methodology of clinical trials was as much of interest as the trial results for investigators gathered at the 39th annual NCDEU (New Clinical Drug Evaluation Unit) Program meeting. This meeting was conducted in June by the National Institute of Mental Health in Boca Raton, Fla.

With the stroke of a pen, California's governor, Gray Davis, approved legislation in September that will soon bring insurance coverage to 25 million individuals suffering from severe mental illnesses. Part of a major overhaul of the state's health insurance laws, when the parity bill becomes effective in July 2000, it will require that insurance companies provide co-payments, deductibles and lifetime benefits equivalent to those for other illnesses, along with reimbursements for partial hospital stays and outpatient and inpatient services.

A national company has chosen final candidates for a new group of regional manager positions. Even though the firm likes its choices, it wants an outside opinion to assess those candidates' leadership and management skills and make suggestions for their executive development.