Neuropsychiatry

Since the terms “genius” and “creativity” have different definitions, Psychiatric Times asked a neuropsychologist and creativity expert to clarify how the terms are being used in scientific studies.

Deep Brain Stimulation is a neurosurgical procedure initially developed for the management of treatment-refractory movement disorders. More recently, the rationale for the use of DBS in anorexia nervosa derives from several sources.

Here's the story of a man with long-standing diabetes -- a pillar of the community-- who had been behaving strangely. He taught his physicians to look past the obvious clues and ultimately learn a lesson they never forgot.

Take our quiz to test your diagnostic skills on intellectual disability (intellectual development disorder), a subcategory of neurodevelopmental disorders in DSM-5.

Demographic shifts and rising life expectancies will lead to an epidemic of chronic neuropsychiatric disease, and societal and public health costs will be enormous. Deep brain stimulation--a procedure that interfaces directly with the neural elements that drive pathological behavior--could be useful.

The authors evaluate the effects of nicotine and cannabis on neurocognitive function in individuals with schizophrenia and review potential pharmacological treatment strategies.

There have been considerable advances in the research on and clinical use of neurostimulation for psychiatric disorders, especially mood disorders and MDD. Three of the most recognized are reviewed here. An experimental new treatment-- trigeminal nerve stimulation-- is also briefly discussed.

A newly published qualitative literature review found stimulants may provide neuroprotective effects for children with ADHD.

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.

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

While the growing evidence base for the positive effects of lithium on brain health is compelling, the evidence remains preliminary.

This article summarizes efforts to develop neurocognitive enhancement drugs administered individually or as an adjunct to other antipsychotics and cognitive remediation.

The subtext of Iron Man III speaks directly to psychiatry. Spoiler alert: You might choose to wait to watch the movie – or read this article.

Clinicians can feel confident in the evidence base when referring patients with a moderate level of treatment resistance for rTMS. Preliminary results suggest that deep rTMS may be an effective option in patients who have failed to respond to more than one antidepressant treatment.

The Directors of the ABPN have established a Faculty Fellowship Program to support the development of innovative education and evaluation projects that promote effective learning by residents, fellows, and practicing psychiatrists and neurologists.

Genetics seems to be a subject of particular interest for everyone. This article explores how the current state of knowledge regarding genetics might be used to help psychiatrists diagnose psychiatric disorders or predict their onset.

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.

To understand the psychodynamics of the dissociative fugue, Dr Michael Sperber analyzes some of the characters in a collection of interrelated vignettes set in small town America.

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.

Certain aspects of depression result from maladaptive stress-induced changes in reward circuits of the brain.

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

Traumatic brain injury, criminal responsibility, traumatic stress, and autism spectrum/neurodevelopmental disorders slideshow

In addition to having an excellent safety profile, ECT is widely acknowledged to be the most effective acute antidepressant treatment.

Chronic exposure to addictive drugs like cocaine produces a progressive pattern of synaptic plasticity in reward circuits that can continue to develop well into periods of drug abstinence.

It is clear that the prognosis for schizophrenia is much better when patients achieve drug abstinence, including in the domains of depression, quality of life, and community integration.

Mindfulness training is a viable treatment tool that rivals psychopharmaceutical agents for the treatment of addiction, anxiety, depression, and other psychiatric disorders.

A list of recent articles highlighting the complexity of psychiatric and systemic illness, both in terms of overlapping clinical presentation and in the degrees to which systemic illness and psychiatric illness affect each other.

People who weren't getting out of bed are getting up and doing productive things. They are re-engaging with their families, and they are focusing on things they want to accomplish before they die.

The evolution of deep brain stimulation for various neuropsychiatric disorders results from advances in structural and functional brain imaging, increased understanding of neurocircuitry of the brain, and improvements in neurosurgical techniques and equipment.