Forensic Psychiatry

Diagnosing rape as mental disorder is an improper use of psychiatric diagnosis and promotes the abuse of psychiatric commitment to further what would otherwise be an unconstitutional form of preventive detention.

The news media has always been in the business of searching for "the right sort of madness" to capture the public's imagination.

Newtown’s loss has finally forced us to look more deeply at violence and the treatment of mental health within our society.

Mental health professionals, state-run forensic services, and law enforcement agencies need to come together and discuss the most efficient and safe models when confronting psychiatric emergencies to improve and expand these practices across America.

What we know for sure is that for all the young children and adults who were killed in Newtown, their world ended a week ago. Soon after the tragedy, one of the fathers of a child killed tearfully pleaded for society to learn from what happened in order to prevent future mass murders. Here, recommendations from a psychiatrist.

The number of medical diseases that can present with psychotic symptoms (ie, delusions, hallucinations) is legion. A thorough differential diagnosis of possible medical and toxic causes of psychosis is necessary to avoid the mistaken attribution of psychosis to a psychiatric disorder.

Can patient care still be your greatest concern, given today’s litigious landscape? Does patient-focused care need to take a back seat against protecting yourself from malpractice?

What steps should you take to avoid being sued? The answer to this all important question can be heard in this video, which stars Skip Simpson, a nationally recognized attorney who has spent his career litigating medical malpractice case

Neurotechnology refers to the science of applying our emerging understanding of the brain, consciousness, thought, and higher-order activities of the mind into developing technologies. The tools of neurotechnology, however, are not new for psychiatrists.

Assessments of partial culpability of adolescents are difficult in individual cases; however, the courts are moving away from mandatory sentencing to individual determinations, even for the most heinous crimes.

Child and adolescent psychiatry is in a position to inform the entire practice of general psychiatry in numerous other areas, including mood disorders, ADHD, and psychosis, as well as the topics...

Improving our kids performance in school won't come from some vague, quixotic psychological fix. It requires they have better lives and better schools and that means us becoming a fairer society.

A recent case has caused a flurry of opposing opinions. Not surprisingly, transgender advocacy groups have praised the judge's decision that the inmate in question has an eighth amendment right requiring the state to support and pay for sex reassignment surgery.

Disparate means of accessing marijuana complicates the evaluation of the quality, purity, and potency of cannabis.

In early September of 2012, a psychiatric colleague and friend passed away. Thomas Stephen Szasz, MD, was Professor Emeritus of Psychiatry at the SUNY Upstate Medical University in Syracuse. Here is a personal reflection of the man I met, learned from, and considered a friend and colleague.

The primary difference between malingering and factitious disorder is the question of motivation.

This tale involves a “clever” inmate. He enjoyed the respectable rung of bank robber, but found he had suddenly descended to approximately the level of a sex offender. The reason for his slippage was the inmate code, which demands allegiance to other inmates under virtually all circumstances. “Ratting out” a fellow inmate may cost one his life, or at the very least, result in a decidedly anxious, paranoid existence.

Cases that come to our attention as malpractice claims, ethics claims, or Board of Registration complaints raise the question: why did the treating clinician not terminate the treatment before things got so out of hand?

Detailed, thoughtful descriptions throughout a Practical Guide to Correctional Mental Health and the Law provide context and make this reference a realistic and practical resource.

An increasing number of patients are being brought to the emergency room because of bath salts and/or herbal incense toxicity.

Psychotherapists have fiduciary power and-from a risk management perspective-the clinician must act in a manner in which misconduct cannot be inferred. In terms of boundary violations, some preventative measures (like psychodynamic education) can be taken.

In treating a female who sexually abuses a minor, what should the clinician keep in mind? Is the treatment plan different for a female offender than a male?

Structured around fictional case vignettes, this book presents the different pathways through which one enters the mental health system. Patients can better judge whether they are being offered the optimal treatment modality and can more effectively assess the stylistic match between themselves and their therapist.

According to this week’s Time Magazine, the American Psychiatric Association has just recruited a new public relations spokesman who previously worked at the Department of Defense.

Mrs E, who is 80 years old, lives in the community with the help of a 24-hour-a-day home health aide. She is forgetful and requires assistance with many activities of daily living.

Like all other sectors of government, state mental health budgets will be slow to recover and will be shaped by current policy priorities and litigation mandates imposed in multiple states.

I was 9 years old in December 1959 when I left and 60 in July 2011 when I returned to Lodz, Poland. My return-a journey through time as well as space-was a continuation of a trip from my home in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where I teach and practice clinical and forensic psychiatry, to Berlin, where I gave a number of presentations at a conference of the International Academy of Law and Mental Health (IALMH).

Here, Mr Hazelwood answers questions about serial murderers that are commonly posed to him. The term serial murderer (or serial killer) was not even a part of the forensic lexicon until the 1970s . . .

A history of trauma is most uniquely related to which psychiatric disorder? Which medical comorbidities are associated with an increased risk of suicide in older adults? These questions and more.

The term “pseudocommando” was first used to describe the type of mass murderer who plans his actions “after long deliberation,” and who kills indiscriminately in public during the daytime.