Cultural Psychiatry

Most New Yorkers were afraid to venture outdoors after the Twin Towers toppled, so a short term, part-time locums post opened upstate, an escape from the decaying metropolis and retreat to the country. What could go wrong in such an idyllic setting?

Psychiatrists have patients who need help and we have the tools to help them. Some of these tools are technical and specific (meds; CBT); but even these work best only in the context of a rich therapeutic relationship that is based on all that makes us human.

The physician’s knowledge is almost always fragmentary and incomplete--and often, “we see through a glass, darkly.” But we must not allow these limitations to deter us from diagnosing and treating our patients to the best of our ability.

If science is defined as some kind of systematic study of observed experience applied to hypotheses or theories, and then confirmation or refutation of those hypotheses or theories, followed by new hypotheses or theories that are further tested and refined by new observations – if this is the core of any scientific inquiry, I think that no objective observer can attribute the history of DSM-III, IV, and 5 to anything that approximates this process.

There are a number of well-established niches in psychiatry, from forensics to addictions to LGBT. This author relates how she established her niche as a sports psychiatrist.

Psychiatric Times asked this psychiatrist to compile and edit a series worthy of its readers’ attention. We hope you find that this special section has achieved the literary and professional standards we set.

A dually trained family physician and psychiatrist wonders about his own relief when a patient misses his third clinic visit in a row.

IOCDA Week takes place from October 14 to 20, 2013, and is celebrated by a number of organizations across the US and around the world, including Columbia University Clinic for Anxiety and Related Disorders.

October is an active month for promoting public awareness of psychiatric illnesses and social programs that give hope to those affected by mental illness.

You have a platform here to share with your colleagues your hopes and concerns about the impact of the Affordable Care Act on your practice.

"Although at times we may need to wipe away blood and tears, through the process we become better physicians and ultimately, better people. These are the victories that we can attain in our ring," says this 4th-year medical student.

We avoid a basic aspect of human existence-namely, we are all a little lost and not knowing, and we had better accept this. In reminding our patients that the worst fate in life is not to suffer-but to suffer alone-we also remind ourselves.

Behavioral problems “masquerade” as physical symptoms. The time has come to treat the whole patient and to make psychiatry part and parcel of primary care.

Here, suggestions for mental health professionals serving the needs of refugees from around the world who have been traumatized by violence.

Psychiatric Times is conducting its 2013 ethics survey. We invite you to share your perspective and participate in the survey.

Emergency departments are often forced to hold patients who are acutely dangerous to themselves or others for long periods until an inpatient bed can be obtained.

This article highlights several features of medical and social importance that are somewhat unique to the Somali refugee community in the US.

If historians have demonstrated anything, it is that psychiatry, clinical psychology, and psychotherapy cannot be neatly associated with any one particular kind of political ideology or movement.

At the very heart of psychiatry, people seem totally unconcerned about making claims that, for example, philosophers have never been able to prove.

Despite the need for mental health support, undocumented immigrants underutilize mental health services. Many endure traumatic experiences while emigrating that put them at psychological risk and once in the US, undocumented immigrants face multiple psychosocial stressors.

Psychiatric disorders in persons with intellectual disabilities are typically more severe and more difficult to diagnose than in the general population. Clearly, those who diagnose ID and treat patients with this condition face a number of challenges.

Despite its many challenges, rural psychiatry can be particularly rewarding because it allows an opportunity to provide much-needed care and the ability to be at the forefront of helping to close gaps in health care disparities.The privilege of being a true community resource and the ability to improve overall community mental health give meaningful purpose to the work of a rural psychiatrist.

Even as psychiatry advances and develops new clinical techniques and as behavioral health systems seek the means to be able to serve all people needing care, disparities in service persist. The articles in this Special Report examine the demographically hard-to-reach populations-the socially marginalized who require special outreach techniques.

We welcome your thoughts and insights about treatment approaches for patients whose sexual addiction takes the form of sexting.

If your practice or your advocacy efforts place you anywhere near people encountering the mental health system for the first time, please have a look at this book.

At the recent annual APA meeting, Dr Abraham Halpern was posthumously honored for the second annual Humanitarian Award by the American Association for Social Psychiatry. He was honored for his contributions to ethics, forensics, and advocacy of social issues.

A panel of experts at the APA Annual Meeting discussed how changes in DSM-5 may affect clinical practice. Highlights here.

This psychiatrist has learned to ask if his Hmong patients have also consulted a shaman to help with their depressive symptoms and with their PTSD.

How often are you confronted with an ethical dilemma in your clinical practice? How comfortable-and how prepared-are you to deal with these issues? Those are just a few of the questions posed in the Psychiatric Times Ethics Survey-a survey that turned out to be the largest ever of its kind.

Come next year, psychiatrists will start seeing patients who have purchased new individual and small-group health plans on the state exchanges mandated by the Affordable Care Act.