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Putting Kevorkian on trial is not the same as developing a rational health care policy for those who are terminally ill. Kevorkian needs to be checked, but too much significance should not be given to his case. Our concern with the care for those who are seriously or terminally ill is too important to relegate to the trial of someone who is so narrowly fixed on being the instrument of his own death or that of others.

The Mental Health Parity Act of 1996-the long sought after federal law that was supposed to discourage health benefits discrimination against the mentally ill-was described as having "failed" to achieve parity because insurers and employers take advantage of loopholes. Despite the critical nature of the report, however, no one from the American Psychiatric Association, not a single psychiatrist for that matter, is quoted in the article.

Woman With a Finger Stuck in Her Nose - Poetry of the Times

A physician asks, via the Internet, for help in locating a resource to evaluate possible interactions between herbal remedies and Western medications. A Stanford researcher surveys 1,035 randomly selected people and reports that 40% of them have used such alternative health care as chiropractic, acupuncture or homeopathy during the past year (Astin, 1998). A survey of U.S. medical schools indicates nearly two-thirds of those responding (64%) now offer courses that include alternative medicine (Wetzel et al., 1998).

Alternative medicine was the theme of this issue of JAMA and in each of the other nine American Medical Association journals published in November. The editors of these scientific journals made an effort to provide physicians and other health care professionals with clinically relevant, reliable, fresh scientific information on alternative therapies.

It is more cost-effective for psychiatrists to provide medication and psychotherapy to depressed patients than it is to split treatment between medical doctors and other mental health care providers

Considered a "fringe" therapy 25 years ago, biofeedback has matured today to a modality much closer to mainstream treatment. Its value is accepted by a growing number of professionals, and it is covered by Medicare for some conditions, as well as by most health insurers.

Faced with the trend toward shorter length of stay in inpatient psychiatric units, practitioners and patients in need of care face dramatic changes in treatment.

Culture has been identified as one of the etiological factors leading to the development of eating disorders. Rates of these disorders appear to vary among different cultures and to change across time as cultures evolve. Additionally, eating disorders appear to be more widespread among contemporary cultural groups than was previously believed.

Although the majority of American households includes a pet, it is only recently that we have begun to explore the relationship between people and their pets and the possible physical and emotional benefits of that relationship.

Although evidence shows that selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) antidepressants cause less orthostasis and interfere less with psychomotor function than do tricyclic antidepressants (TCAs), a recent pharmacoepidemiologic study found them comparable in increasing elderly patients' risk for falling.

Hospital Food - Poetry of the Times

For decades, physicians have railed against the inequities of malpractice laws, lobbying for statutory changes that would insulate them from injustices, both real and perceived. In an ironic twist, extending tort liability has become the latest weapon against managed care companies and the medical directors who often make utilization review determinations. As a result, managed care companies are now rushing to embrace the once scorned external review and independent appeals processes in a last-ditch effort to stave off reforms requiring them to justify health care decisions in front of judges and juries.

As psychological and mental health issues increasingly take center stage in high profile criminal and civil proceedings, the ability to satiate inquiring minds often means trashing privacy and confidentiality at the altar of the public's right to know. Tyson isn't the only one whose psychological profile has been splayed out before an audience of billions in cyberspace.

When treating agitation in the elderly, the optimization of certain behavioral techniques may enhance medication therapies or sometimes eliminate the need for them. Clinicians should look more closely at the behavioral causes behind a demented older person's problem behavior.

Aware that there is a "rush to hold all providers delivering mental health and chemical dependency services accountable for the accessibility, quality and satisfaction of such services," the American Managed Behavioral Healthcare Association (AMBHA) recently released the second version of its Performance Measures for Managed Behavioral Healthcare Programs (PERMS 2.0).

In Western psychiatry, depression is considered a major cause of suicide. But research from China calls that assumption into question. More than 300,000 suicides occur annually in China, nearly 10 times the number of suicides in the United States.

The National Household Survey on Drug Abuse (NHSDA), the primary source of statistical information on Americans' use of alcohol, tobacco and illicit drugs, will be expanded in upcoming years to include substantial information on mental illness and state-level data on drug abuse, according to Nelba Chavez, Ph.D., administrator of the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA).

Verdicts in separate malpractice cases have heightened apprehension over the erosion of patient-physician confidentiality and the increase in malpractice liability exposure. Psychiatrists now face the more serious prospect that they could end up, in essence, having to guarantee society that their patients won't act dangerously.

Meeting the mental health needs of the millions of immigrants from diverse cultural backgrounds and homelands who now live in the United States may require more than a thorough knowledge of psychiatry or psychology, according to a number of cultural psychiatric practitioners.

What I Love (after Stephen Dunn) - Poetry of the Times

Consider the following scenario: You are contacted by the major health plan with which you contract and are told that your average length of inpatient stay is longer than their standard. You believe this is because your patients are more severely ill than average. How do you respond?

The term managed care has become the new blasphemy in the health care industry. Symposia, lectures and other presentations on this topic at the 1997 American Psychiatric Association convention all seemed to conclude that managed care in any form is evil and unethical and that by maintaining the moral high ground, physicians holding out against managed care would ultimately win because the cause is just.

Insufficient intake of essential fatty acids (EFAs) may contribute to the pathogenesis of mental diseases, while their supplementation may relieve some symptoms, according to researchers who attended the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Workshop on Omega-3 Essential Fatty Acids and Psychiatric Disorders held in Bethesda, Md., in September 1998.

This is the second of two articles regarding herbal medicines as discussed at the American Psychiatric Association's annual meeting in Toronto. Potential benefits and risks of kava, St. John's wort and hoasca were considered at the recent American Psychiatric Association's symposium on herbal medicine.

While managed care generally has limited inpatient care and contained short-term costs for mental health and substance abuse services, significant questions remain about how these changes in health care delivery affect the quality of care patients receive.

To understand how mental health law is changing, one must begin with a sense of its traditional orientation. The underlying principle of the law that governs psychiatric practice has been that patients require protection from unjustified restrictions on their liberty, especially at the hands of the state.

Meeting the mental health needs of the millions of immigrants from diverse cultural backgrounds and homelands who now live in the United States may require more than a thorough knowledge of psychiatry or psychology, according to a number of cultural psychiatric practitioners.

The advent of the new millennium has stimulated many discussions about what changes can-and should-occur in the world. For social psychiatry, there could not be a more fortuitous time to review and reaffirm our role in this country's health care.

Breaking the News - Poetry of the Times