July 11th 2024
What is new in research on alcohol use disorder?
Youth Aggression: Economic Impact, Causes, Prevention, and Treatment
October 1st 2006The increase in youth violence and aggression in the past 50 years has been called an "epidemic." This epidemic has had a tremendous impact on society. From an economic and public health perspective, primary prevention of youth violence is obviously desirable.
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Treating Delirium: When the Brain Goes Off Track
October 1st 2006Typically, delirium worsens at night ("sundowning"), with lucid intervals often present in the morning. It is important to realize that delirium may appear before any abnormal laboratory values are detected and may persist after the resolution of these abnormalities.
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Addressing Psychiatric Comorbidities in Patients With Epilepsy
October 1st 2006In a presentation given at the midyear meeting of the American Epilepsy Society, Andres Kanner, MD cited studies from the literature showing that the rates of depression, anxiety, psychosis, and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) are significantly higher among persons with epilepsy than among the general population
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Understanding and Using the Placebo Effect
October 1st 2006Most physicians make at least some use of the placebo effect to enhance treatments, whether they realize it or not. This article examines the extent of the placebo effect in patients with psychiatric illness, and reviews what is known about how placebos work.
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Treating Adolescents With Major Depression and an Alcohol Use Disorder
October 1st 2006Alcohol is the drug of choice for adolescents, with cigarettes and marijuana being second and third. Contrary to widespread belief, alcohol dependence is most common in 18- to 20-year-olds, with progressively decreasing rates of alcohol dependence in older age groups.
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Should Emergency Medicine Physicians Screen for Psychiatric Disorders?
October 1st 2006Emergency department (ED) visits have increased from 89 million in 1992 to more than 110 million in 2002, while the number of EDs decreased by about 15% during the same period. One suspected consequence of ED overcrowding is an increased tendency to disregard a psychiatric problem, especially if it is not the chief complaint.
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Combining Drug Therapy and Psychotherapy for Depression
October 1st 2006It was just over a generation ago that the routine combination of psychotherapy and drug therapy seemed impossible. Then, one meta-analysis found that combined treatment with psychotherapy and medication was found to be notably superior to either treatment alone.
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Alternative Brief Interventions for Mild Depression
October 1st 2006Depression has long been recognized as a primary concern for health care providers. Many approaches to treating depression have been developed, ranging from medications, to long-term psychotherapy, to shorter, more structured cognitive-behavioral treatments--all of which help some of the patients, some of the time, to some extent.
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Parents as Part of the Therapeutic Process in a Child and Adolescent Referral
September 1st 2006While some mental health services for adolescents allow self-referral, many require parental involvement. There is increasing evidence that working with the family and the child is important if only to increase compliance with medication and to tackle any comorbid difficulties.
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The Role of Family Therapy for Adolescents With Anorexia Nervosa
September 1st 2006The inclusion of parents in their children's treatment for eating disorder is not universally accepted. However, recent studies suggest that families should be included in treatment and that they are often a powerful resource for helping their children recover.
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Borderline Personality Disorder: An Overview
August 25th 2006DSM-IV-TR emphasizes that patients with borderline personality disorder (BPD) show a "instability of interpersonal relationships, self-image, and affects, and marked impulsivity beginning by early adulthood and present in a variety of contexts," and any five out of nine listed criteria must be present for the diagnosis to be made.
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10-Point Clock Test Screens for Cognitive Impairment in Clinic and Hospital Settings
August 25th 2006The obvious sometimes bears repeating: Sick people have trouble thinking. They may be suffering from a delirium, a dementia or a more subtle disturbance of cognition caused by fever, drugs, infection, inflammation, trauma, hypoxemia, metabolic derangement, hypotension, tumor, intracranial pathology, pain and so forth.
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A Patient with Dissociative Identity Disorder 'Switches' in the Emergency Room
August 25th 2006Many highly regarded clinicians have built careers working with patients they believe to have dissociative identity disorder (DID). Other distinguished practitioners consider DID to be a bogus diagnostic tag.
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Bipolar Disorder: Diagnostic Challenges and Treatment Strategies
August 1st 2006The past few years have seen substantial progress in recognizing and treating several of the subtypes of bipolar disorder. This Special Report addresses the diagnostic challenges and the different strategies for managing these subtypes.
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