Blogs

Education and discussion will be the most powerful ways to mitigate the risks of DSM-5. The more people know about psychiatric diagnosis, the more safe, accurate, and useful it will be.

Has the Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity had any real impact on your ability to provide care to patients, or are you experiencing the shells and mortars of paperwork and denials? And will the average patient ever really benefit from the laws, or were they just passed to make the country feel better about the state of psychiatric care in the US?

As most mental health professionals know by now, psychiatry's D-Day is rapidly approaching. DSM-5 is scheduled to be officially released at the American Psychiatric Association meeting. However, there has never been an official treatment manual to complement the diagnostic one.

While it is true that the intense grief of bereavement and major depressive disorder often share some features—for example, tearfulness, insomnia, low mood, and decreased appetite—there are many substantive differences.

If you are a psychiatrist who tends to look on the bright side, you may find the results of a new physician survey to be relatively good. Psychiatrists report the lowest level of professional burnout and the lowest level of burnout severity across various specialties. But just how good is relatively good?

The intense level of international interest in DSM-5 is a great surprise. Although DSM has become a research standard around the world, it is rarely used by clinicians outside the US and therefore poses a much lesser threat to their patients. So why all the prominent media coverage in countries outside of the US?

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

The Sandy Hook Promise . . “To do everything in our power to be remembered-—not as the town filled with grief and victims; but as the place where real change began.”

Money should not be wasted on futile preventive programs to detect mental health problems that don't yet exist. Instead, resources should be invested where there is desperate need—to properly treat and decently house psychiatric patients who are now shamefully neglected.

Carve out a career in the area of psychiatry that interests you. If you’re drawn to specialized topics, such as atypical bipolar disorder, club drugs, glutamate transporters, or genetic links to autism, then pursue those avenues. Here, advice to psychiatry residents.