Psychotic Affective Disorders

In the second part of this series, read about the special issues psychiatrists face when treating women, children and adolescents, and elderly people with bipolar disorder and dementia. What are the recommendations for care and monitoring strategies to maintain patients on effective, long-term treatment regimens?

One of the spin-offs of the consensus statement is a study of the risk for metabolic disorders with antipsychotic use in children and adolescents. Here, the lead researcher discusses some of the group's initial findings.

The atypical antipsychotics have become the treatment of choice for patients with psychotic and other behavioral disorders. However, case reports, retrospective studies and epidemiological data suggest that these medications may be associated with new-onset type 2 diabetes and diabetic ketoacidosis.

Psychotic episodes following brain injuries can often be mistaken for schizophrenia. How can the presentation of psychotic episodes reframe our understanding of this complex phenomenon?

Compared with Caucasians, African Americans receive an excess of schizophrenia-spectrum diagnoses. Potential explanations for the ethnic differences in clinical assignment of psychiatric diagnoses are reviewed.

There are two goals in the acute treatment setting (e.g., emergency department): initiation of treatment and reducing the symptoms of agitation and aggression that frequently accompany an acute psychotic breakdown. Treatment options and considerations are reviewed.

For a couple of years, I have been a member of the American Society of Clinical Psychopharmacology (ASCP). I guess many of us carry this need to belong from our adolescent years. It always felt good for me to be a part of a professional group, sharing the same interests, united by special education and knowledge. How wrong of me!

It is more cost-effective for psychiatrists to provide medication and psychotherapy to depressed patients than it is to split treatment between medical doctors and other mental health care providers