http://www.psychiatrictimes.com Psychiatric News, Features, Special Reports and Career Opportunities - Psychiatric Times en Copyright 2009, CMPMedica US Sat, 07 Nov 2009 17:00:01 GMT Sat, 07 Nov 2009 17:00:01 GMT http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss http://www.psychiatrictimes.com/display/article/10168/1484903?CID=rss Smoking cessation services should be integrated into substance use disorder treatment programs, according to David Kalman, MD, Department of Psychiatry, University of Massachusetts, and colleagues, in their recent review of tobacco dependency among patients who sought treatment for alcoholism.1 Sat, 7 Nov 2009 12:00:00 GMT http://www.psychiatrictimes.com/display/article/10168/1484284?CID=rss Repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) may be an effective therapy for treatment-resistant bipolar depression, according to the results of a recent pilot study led by Guohua Xia, MD, PhD, assistant clinical professor of psychiatry at the University of California, Davis. Wed, 4 Nov 2009 12:00:00 GMT http://www.psychiatrictimes.com/display/article/10168/1484242?CID=rss Although rapid-cycling bipolar disorder has been linked to the use of antidepressants, these treatments may still have a role in the management of patients with bipolar depression, said Stephen V. Sobel, MD, clinical instructor at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine, in a presentation at the U.S. Psychiatric and Mental Health Congress in Las Vegas. Wed, 4 Nov 2009 12:00:00 GMT http://www.psychiatrictimes.com/display/article/10168/1483830?CID=rss A few simple steps can enhance your assessment of a patient’s suicide risk—and thereby reduce your own risk for liability if the patient does commit suicide. Phillip J. Resnick, MD, professor of psychiatry and director of forensic psychiatry at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, described those measures in a lecture today at the US Psychiatric Congress in Las Vegas. Tue, 3 Nov 2009 12:00:00 GMT http://www.psychiatrictimes.com/display/article/10168/1483405?CID=rss A clinic for patients with bipolar disorder at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) was the scene of yet another attack by a patient on a psychiatrist. Mon, 2 Nov 2009 12:00:00 GMT http://www.psychiatrictimes.com/display/article/10168/1483072?CID=rss Major depressive disorder (MDD) is common during childbearing. Depression that interferes with function develops in an estimated 14.5% of pregnant women.1 In a recent population-based study, Munk-Olsen and colleagues2 determined the prevalence of psychiatric disorders relative to childbearing. The overall risk for any psychiatric episode after delivery was elevated for women during the first 3 postpartum months. However, the increased risk specifically for major depression remained elevated for 5 months after birth. These statistics are troubling in that only 13.8% of pregnant women who screen positive for depression actually receive treatment.3 Wed, 4 Nov 2009 12:00:00 GMT http://www.psychiatrictimes.com/display/article/10168/1482754?CID=rss With billions of dollars for electronic health record (EHR) technology purchases hanging in the balance, psychiatrists need to be paying attention to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) deliberations on the definition of “meaningful use.” HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius is supposed to set an interim definition in a few months. This is important to all office-based physicians because it will set the requirements they will have to meet for proving they are making meaningful use of EHR software and hardware they previously purchased. If they can make the case, starting in 2011, they would qualify for federal grants to partially compensate them for those previous software and hardware purchases. Mon, 2 Nov 2009 12:00:00 GMT http://www.psychiatrictimes.com/display/article/10168/1482740?CID=rss Appetite regulation is made up of complex interlocking, incentive-driven motivational hormonal and neuronal circuitries . . . that can be pulled in many directions, especially where food is cheap and readily available. Sun, 1 Nov 2009 12:00:00 GMT http://www.psychiatrictimes.com/display/article/10168/1482349?CID=rss Patients who exaggerate, feign, or induce physical illness are a great challenge to their physicians. Trained to trust their patients’ self-reports, even competent and conscientious physicians can fall victim to these deceptions. In doing so, the treating physician may unwittingly provide support for specious claims of illness or injury by conferring official diagnoses, or by delivering treatments that transform the patient from a pretender into a person with a genuine, although iatrogenic, medical problem (eg, via adrenalectomy, pancreatectomy, serial amputation).1-3 Fri, 30 Oct 2009 12:00:00 GMT http://www.psychiatrictimes.com/display/article/10168/1482320?CID=rss The right of American citizens to own, register, and carry firearms has a significant history of federal and/or local regulation dating to the early 18th century.1 With the passage of the federal Gun Control Act of 1968, persons who have been treated for mental illness and/or substance abuse are among a defined group restricted from owning and carrying firearms.2-4 While violence is often portrayed in the media as related to persons with mental illnesses, there are limited research data to support this idea.5 Fri, 30 Oct 2009 12:00:00 GMT http://www.psychiatrictimes.com/display/article/10168/1481943?CID=rss The editors of Psychiatric Times interview Vladimir Maletic, MD, PA, clinical professor of neuropsychiatry and behavioral science at the University of South Carolina School of Medicine, Columbia; founding member of the Integrative Neurobiology Educational Alliance; and member of the U.S. Psychiatric and Mental Health Congress 2009 advisory board. Thu, 29 Oct 2009 12:00:00 GMT http://www.psychiatrictimes.com/display/article/10168/1481856?CID=rss The past several years have been a time of radical change in the economic, technological, social, and political landscape of our country. These developments, of necessity, affect education in all its forms—including continuing medical education. Increasingly, the print medium is becoming an endangered species and previously unimagined modes of information transmission, such as blogs, RSS feeds, and podcasts, have emerged as common forms of communication. The exponential growth of medical knowledge and the increasingly rapid pace of scientific discovery have made it nearly impossible for the print medium to keep abreast of new developments. The Internet has therefore become crucial as a source of up-to-date information to ever more intellectually overwhelmed clinicians. It is no wonder that many in medicine regard the Internet and its electronic affiliates with periodic ambivalence despite their enormous potential to catalyze adult learning.1 Tue, 3 Nov 2009 12:00:00 GMT http://www.psychiatrictimes.com/display/article/10168/1481848?CID=rss You have read the blogs and seen the placards a dozen times: doctors prescribe too many “drugs” for too many patients. Psychiatrists, in particular, are popular targets of politically motivated language that seeks to conflate the words “medication” and “drug”—thereby tapping into the public’s understandable fears concerning “drug abuse” and its need to carry out a “War on Drugs.” Misleading radio ads promise “drug-free” treatment of panic disorder (certainly possible, but not always achievable) and the Internet bristles with the phrase, “psychiatric drugging.” (My Google search pulled up 9310 results.) And, all too predictably, any physician who argues that psychotropic medication is often an effective and lifesaving intervention is hustled off to the perp line of “drug-company shills.” Thu, 29 Oct 2009 12:00:00 GMT http://www.psychiatrictimes.com/display/article/10168/1481838?CID=rss On Monday, August 24, 2009, in response to a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit, the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) released a “Top Secret,” highly redacted May 7, 2004, report, Counterterrorism Detention and Interrogation Activities (September 2001 – October 2003).1 The report’s opening pages concede that the activity it divulges “diverges sharply from previous Agency policy and rules that govern interrogation.” Wed, 28 Oct 2009 12:00:00 GMT