Arline Kaplan

Describing herself as “strangled by debt” and “unable to deal with [the] school system” that had provided education for her special-needs son, psychiatrist Margaret Jensvold, MD, recently killed her 13-year-old son and then committed suicide.

Psychology Professor Marc Hauser, who last year was found solely responsible for 8 counts of scientific misconduct following an internal investigation, has resigned from his tenured position at Harvard University.

Newly developed blood tests for schizophrenia and for depression designed to augment current diagnostic approaches have attracted increased attention at recent major scientific meetings.

Harvard University Psychology Professor Marc Hauser, who last year was found solely responsible for 8 counts of scientific misconduct following an internal investigation, has resigned from his tenured position at the university effective August 1, according to recent press reports.

For women with metastatic or recurrent breast cancer, reductions in depression symptoms over the first year of a randomized controlled trial predicted longer survival times.

To identify what psychiatrists and other physicians may need to know about recent studies in internal medicine, Monique Yohanan, MD, MPH, a physician editor at Epocrates, Inc, reviewed several articles published during the last year that she considers newsworthy and most likely to influence clinical practice.

Patients with anxiety disorders who self-medicate with alcohol or drugs may be increasing their risk for developing incident substance use disorders, according to a study presented at the American Psychiatric Association’s recent annual meeting.

A report of dropoffs of elderly individuals at hospitals, elderly persons being reported for socially inappropriate behavior, and an increase in 911 calls concerning elderly relatives with dementia attacking family members and caregivers.

In a decade-long study of antipsychotic prescribing for hospitalized children and adolescents, researchers found that antipsychotics were used in 44.3% of patients and were often prescribed for behavioral disorders, PTSD, and other anxiety disorders as well as psychotic disorders.

Researchers 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 response to mounting physician interest in vitamins and dietary supplements, Monique Yohanan, MD, MPH, a physician editor at Epocrates, Inc, reviewed her picks for articles about vitamin D, calcium, and glucosamine that she considers “most likely to influence clinical practice” at the recent APA meeting in Honolulu.

More than 1 in 4 inpatients with schizophrenia received add-on antidepressants as recorded at discharge, according to Megan Jo Ehret, Pharm D., BCPP, and assistant professor in the University of Connecticut’s School of Pharmacy.

A large-scale, systematic depression screening of adults with cardiovascular disease (CVD) conducted by Kaiser Permanente in Southern California produced some unexpected result. Even those with negative depression screens benefitted.

Children of active-duty military face increased risk of psychiatric hospitalization when a parent is deployed for longer than 6 months, as suggested by new research presented during the American Psychiatric Association meeting in Hawaii.

If ketamine is able to turn off a patient’s depression, even for one day, you have accomplished something important, whether or not you can maintain it. This is because you have at least given the patient hope . . . that in itself is very significant from a therapeutic perspective.

Psychiatrists can be enormously helpful, they have experience in dealing with very difficult problems and are less fazed than others by some of the difficulties that arise.

NIMH is shifting away from current-generation treatments and toward preclinical drug development and early-phase clinical pharmacology, according to the institute’s director and a workgroup co-chair.

The selection of Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu, 1984 Nobel Peace Prize recipient, to present the convocation lecture at the American Psychiatric Association’s upcoming annual meeting has so outraged some APA members that they have arranged meeting boycotts and protests.

Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu, invited Convocation speaker at the American Psychiatric Association’s upcoming annual meeting, last year called for academic and cultural boycotts of Israel. Now, he is the target of planned protests by APA members who view him as making anti-Semitic statements.

Many psychiatrists, residents, and other mental health professionals believe that psychodynamic therapy lacks empirical support or that other psychotherapies are more effective.

New research into cholesterol-lowering statin drugs and serotonin-1A receptors may help explain the relationships between cholesterol levels and symptoms of anxiety and depression.

Harvard professor, Marc Hauser, PhD-whose views on the evolution of morality have been widely accepted by many psychiatrists and others-was recently found by a university investigating committee to be “solely responsible for 8 instances of scientific misconduct.”

Patients on average spent between 1 and 8 hours per day preoccupied with negative thoughts about their perceived [mal]odor.

Opioid Dependence and XR Naltrexone

While the Army considers what, if any, disciplinary actions to take against those who directed the medical training of MAJ Nidal Hasan-the accused Fort Hood shooter-one psychiatrist’s legal counsel faults the military for blaming a handful of officers for a broader institutional failing.

While Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) broadens his conflict of interest (COI) investigations to include mental health leaders and associations, the National Institutes of Health (NIH), teaching hospitals, universities, and mental health organizations are intensifying their vigilance and taking corrective actions.

Recent multiple brain imaging studies of patients with restricting-type anorexia nervosa (AN) reveal neurocircuit dysregulation and may help clarify the disorder’s confounding symptoms.

A recent Senate hearing on conflicts of interest (COIs) in medical education and research revealed that the tri-committee health care reform bill requires public disclosure of pharmaceutical company payments to several health entities, that the removal of industry-sponsored symposia by the American Psychiatric Association (APA) cost it $1.5 million in revenues, and that the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME) is expanding its requirements and enforcement actions.

Army personnel responsible for supervising the Army psychiatrist now accused of the November 5, 2009 shooting rampage at Fort Hood, Tex, may find themselves accused of failing to follow Army policies and regulations and taking appropriate actions.

In the face of 200,000 or more dead and millions injured or homeless in Haiti following the January 12 earthquake, mental health and medical organizations, along with US government agencies, are offering aid both to those suffering and to those helping.