Major Depressive Disorder

It is hard for mental health professionals to discuss completed suicides. Legal fears, confidentiality concerns, shame, and stigma are formidable obstacles. But talk we must, for talking-and listening-is a key to prevention and treatment.

Lack of communication is often a key factor in mass murder, according Phillip Resnick, MD. Although HIPAA is important, the safety of the individual and the public should outweigh privacy issues, and “risk to human life always trumps confidentiality.”

Most persons who use CAM modalities to self-treat a mental health problem take prescription antidepressants concurrently. Combined use can result in serious supplement-drug interactions.

Most people look forward to their morning jolt from coffee, but could that cup of Joe be doing more than keeping us alert? According to researchers from Harvard University, java may indeed have another benefit-that of reducing suicide risk.

Older Latinos with depression report higher levels of impairment and are more persistently ill than non-Hispanic white older adults, yet they have lower rates of guideline-concordant treatment. Cognitive and problem-solving psychosocial modalities are emerging as key treatment considerations for older Latinos.

A risk to benefit ratio of treatment must be established to determine the optimal treatment for perimenopausal depression. Untreated depression during the perimenopause exacerbates heart disease, diabetes, and osteoporosis. Details about management options here.

Is depression a systemic disorder of oneself and the brain’s intrinsic activity?

For many patients with depression, full symptom remission remains elusive despite multiple trials of antidepressants. This article focuses on psychopharmacological and related interventions.

The diagnosis and management of unipolar depression remain challenging. The articles in this Special Report remind us of the wide knowledge base that is needed in the management of the depressed patient and of the multiple conceptual levels that must be integrated in the care of our patients.

Nonpharmacological interventions-such as mind-body interventions-can improve a partial response to antidepressants via stress reduction, improved physical functioning, increased socialization, and reduced risks of polypharmacy.

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

What is the relationship between common illnesses and depression? And why is the relationship so strong? What can clinicians do now to manage both the medical illness and the depression?

CBT has become rooted as proven dogma in the treatment of depression despite large problems remaining in methodology of CBT clinical trials and the logic behind how CBT works. This article will describe the major methodologic problems in the clinical trials of CBT.

Obesity is one of the most common physical health problems in individuals with psychiatric conditions and contributes to excess medical morbidity and mortality. Several classes of psychotropic medications, particularly atypical antipsychotics, cause weight gain. While these issues pose challenges to optimal health, the good news is that there are solutions and emerging strategies.

This article highlights evidence-based treatment with herbs and nutrients with good tolerability and potential benefit when integrated into psychiatric practices.

The major challenges for epigenetic therapies are target specificity of the drugs-an issue that is also true for most of the currently used drugs in medicine, especially in psychiatry.

Because of new imaging techniques and advances in our understanding of neurophysiology, neurological and psychiatric disorders are increasingly being recognized as disorders of circuit functions in the brain. Using techniques such as DBS, neurosurgeons are able to pinpoint malfunctioning circuits and to recalibrate them.

Parents of children with ADHD frequently ask whether there are nonmedication treatments that are effective for managing their children’s symptoms of ADHD. A recent meta-analysis provides an answer to this clinically important question.

Psychiatrists need to understand how living in violent families and neighborhoods increases the likelihood of trauma and the psychiatric sequelae associated with it as well as how to respond in the aftermath.

A new clinical society has been founded to coordinate TMS practices and to connects physician and non-physician members from across the world.

The ethical aim of psychiatry is the relief of suffering and incapacity.

Discussing the Neuropsychiatric Outcomes After Heart Surgery study, testing the vascular hypothesis of post-coronary artery bypass graft depression.

Lamotrigine is an important option in bipolar disorders. However, many clinicians also use it in patients with a (unipolar) depressive disorder who have not responded adequately to conventional antidepressants.

The extent to which antidepressant use during pregnancy is associated with increased risks of postnatal adaptation syndrome, persistent pulmonary hypertension in the newborn, first-trimester teratogenicity, stillbirth, and infant mortality is explored in 2 recent studies. A close up look here. . .

In our time, it seems that the number of psychiatrists who believe in a God are increasing, parallel with the decreasing influence of Freud’s ideas.

When critics of psychiatric diagnosis insist that terms like “schizophrenia” or “bipolar disorder” are inherently stigmatizing, they are unwittingly perpetuating the very prejudice they wish to end. It is time to shine a bright light on this self-fulfilling prophecy.

Outpatient psychiatry is a critical experience in becoming an independent psychiatrist.

Frame analysis can not only help us to discern the roots of such standoffs but also to conceptualize specific ways of addressing the conflicts in therapeutic language with the patient, with the goal of forging an integrated approach to treatment.

Psychological symptoms of depression in patients with diabetes are more specific to depression than their somatic counterparts.

Historically, there has been conflict between psychiatry and religion.