Special Reports

With their early age of onset, high prevalence, chronicity, and pervasive impact on multiple domains of functioning, the burden of mood disorders exceeds that of virtually all medical conditions in the US and globally in terms of disability, cost, and suffering.

Just as the progress over recent decades has improved the clinical evaluation and management of BD among children and adolescents, the remaining gaps serve to inform future progress.

Although multiple interventions exist for major depressive disorder (MDD), only partial response is achieved in many patients and recurrence is common. Combining medication and psychotherapy may enable more effective treatment of MDD.

From diagnosis to treatment, paraphilias and paraphilic disorders present unique challenges for the general psychiatrist.

Sexual life is not just about sexual identity and sexual behavior. 

When people turn to mental health professionals about sexual problems-cyber or otherwise-how comfortable and informed are we?

Adolescents explore their sexuality. In most cases, this exploration is normative. At times, however, compulsive sexual behavior is developed and maintained.

Transgender adolescents and their families experience barriers to care and specialized providers might not always be available. However, the work with transgender adolescents can be rewarding.

To improve access to and quality of mental health care for individuals who identify as LGBTQ, it is important for clinicians to become allies to this marginalized community.

The rise of the Internet and smart phones has created a proliferation of “sexting” between adults and, even more concerning, youths.

As varied as the field of psychiatry itself, our Special Report collections covered issues such as eating disorders, traumatic brain injury, practice management, schizophrenia and depression, complex medical comorbidities, and more. Here's a sampling.

In this Special Report we offer articles that address the interplay of psychiatric and infectious disease.

Ongoing research has identified multiple infectious diseases that may play a role in the development of neuropsychiatric disorders, particularly in people predisposed to genetic and environmental factors.

Nearly all antibiotic agents have been associated with CNS effects. Although uncommon, these events can be severe.

This article describes a model for anorexia nervosa that is useful when working with patients or families to help them understand the complexity of the illness.

Eating disorders (ED) are associated with significant comorbid psychopathology and the most extensive medical complications of any psychiatric disorder.

Avoidant restrictive food intake disorder, or ARFID, is a newly introduced eating disorder in DSM-5. Given that the disorder was introduced in 2013, it remains unclear how prevalent ARFID is in the general population.

Treating eating disorders can feel challenging because patients are typically ambivalent about changing their behavior; however, it is also rewarding, as full recovery is possible even in the most chronically and severely ill patients.

Anorexia nervosa (AN) is a severe and debilitating illness with one of the highest mortality rates of any psychiatric disorder. The illness course is often long, recovery is slow, and the rates of full recovery are low.

More than two-thirds of patients with eating disorders also have comorbid mood and anxiety disorders. This article considers how a transdiagnostic process called interoception may help to advance our understanding and treatment of eating disorders.

Eating disorders (EDs) are associated with high medical and psychiatric comorbidity, poor quality of life, and high mortality, and mortality from anorexia nervosa (AN) is the highest of all mental disorders. Fortunately, there are a number of evidence-based psychological treatment approaches for EDs.

The collective awareness of this devastating neurodegenerative disease will likely result in intensifying efforts to improve our understanding of disease pathology as well as exploring potentially a promising therapeutic regimen.

While the core features of autism impair functioning, a significant source of further impairment is comorbid psychiatric disorders.

The aim of this article is to show that tinnitus is secondary to an aberrant brain-ear circuitry affected by disorders such as mood, anxiety, and alcohol and substance abuse as well as executive dysfunction, migraine, sleep and stress. By treating these comorbidities, tinnitus tends to improve.

As a neuropsychiatric and general medical syndrome, catatonia represents an important diagnostic and treatment challenge for all clinicians given its morbidity and mortality.

As we discover new diseases of the brain that present with psychiatric symptoms, it remains incumbent upon us to remember the experience of patients and their families in the context of society at large.

While the process of diagnosing is common to all fields of medicine, this article specifically addresses missed “medical” diagnoses in patients who present to or are being followed by psychiatrists and other mental health clinicians.

DSM-5 categorizes PNES as a functional neurological disorder or conversion disorder with seizures. It is essential that neurologists, psychiatrists, and other clinicians coordinate care to ensure that patients with PNES receive a prompt diagnosis.

A collection of tools and best practices by psychiatrists who have "been there" to help you develop and structure your own rewarding practice.

Hearing loss before the development of language has a major impact on communication, identity, and social development, as well as how mental health symptoms present.