Risk Assessment

Here we address some of these problems of meaningless phrasing, empty shells, and template-distorted recording in an attempt to improve clinical documentation for both clinical care and risk management.

In this podcast, Dr Thomas Gutheil talks about a key challenge facing psychiatrists. . . valid medical record keeping. Here: important tips from an expert based on an article he coathored with Dr. Robert Simon.

The purpose of suicide risk assessment is to identify treatable and modifiable risks and protective factors that inform the patient’s treatment and safety management requirements.

Whenever a suicide happens in the New Asylums, a palpable, muted dread descends over the institution...it is added as another sedimentary layer to the strata and culture of the particular institution. Before things get too deeply buried, it is important to excavate...

Custody disputes often produce anxiety for all involved. Whether you are a treating child psychiatrist or custody evaluator, it is imperative to have a clear idea of your role.

Depression, PTSD, panic disorder, and abuse of alcohol and drugs are more insidious, quieter forms of illness that can cause the same desperation and disability as psychotic disorders.

Seeking to find an instrument for predicting imminent suicide attempts, Igor Galynker, MD, PhD, from Beth Israel Medical Center, and his research team are developing a scale to measure a clinically identified emotional “trigger state” that puts individuals with suicidal ideation at increased risk of acting on their ideations.

In the first in a series of brief podcasts, Dr. Phillip Resnick answers questions often asked about assessing risk for suicide and violence.

Clinicians inevitably encounter disgruntled, angry, and deranged patients. The reasons for violence inflicted against clinicians are many and varied.

Here is a “pocket guide” for clinicians drawn from actual cases. With some modification, the list could become a patient information sheet or office policy.

The psychiatric emergency room (ER) is an intense, stressful work environment where psychiatrists must perform rapid assessments and make swift treatment decisions.

Major mood disorders have been associated with increased suicidal behavior. This is especially true in patients with a mixed, manic-depressive, or dysphoric-agitated state.

Research indicates that substance misuse is consistently associated with suicidal thoughts, suicide attempts, and suicide mortality. The risk of suicide is likely to be greater in persons with more severe levels of substance abuse as well as in those with depression.

The recent mass murders in Arizona are the latest in our country's epidemic of horrible, hate inspired crimes. The 24/7 media punditry and political spinning has been disappointingly off point in a way suggesting that once again we will learn nothing from our mistakes and that such tragedies will continue to recur with distressing frequency.

A funny thing happened to me on the way back from the New Hampshire Governor’s Statewide Conference on Domestic & Sexual Violence. I don’t mean funny in a comedic sense, but rather in an unexpected, shocking sense.

FROM PSYCHIATRIC CONGRESS
In a question-and-answer discussion with Dr Resnick, clinicians at Psych Congress gained valuable insight into legalities of psychiatry and how best to treat patients and protect the public (and themselves).

Bipolar disorder is associated with a high prevalence of childhood trauma as well as with the possibility of aggressive and potentially violent behavior. It is important for clinicians to assess a patient’s potential for violence as accurately as possible to minimize risk.

The characteristics that bring people into the caring professions are, ironically, the very factors that make them vulnerable to vicarious trauma and job burnout. It is our responsibility to ensure that these adverse outcomes are minimized among those who have chosen such a career.

Two recent studies by Harvard psychologists deliver promising data from 2 tests that may help clinicians predict suicidal behavior. The markers in these new tests involve a patient’s attention to suicide-related stimuli and the measure of association with death or suicide.

Keys to Diagnosis, Assessment, and Management

In this podcast, Dr Thomas Gutheil talks about a key challenge facing psychiatrists. . . valid medical record keeping. Here: important tips from an expert based on an article he coathored with Dr. Robert Simon.

In the second in his series of podcasts, Dr Phillip Resnick answers questions psychiatrists often ask about assessing the risk of violence.