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The World Health Organization (WHO) has distributed for comments the draft of a Manual on Mental Health Legislation as a guide for all the countries of the world. It is to serve as a model for new legislation and as a guide for countries amending their legislation. Given the different legal systems, the cultural diversity and the vast inequalities in economic resources among the nations of the world, one can certainly question the wisdom of the WHO's top-down approach. In addition, everyone who knows the scarcity of competent mental health care professionals and the limited resources in third world countries will recognize that most of the proposals are quite unrealistic. How can nations who cannot feed their poor or meet the basic necessities of public health measures and primary care be expected to provide "incompetent" mental patients with counsel (lawyers) and independent tribunals (courts) before they begin to treat them?

With the failure of previous federal plans to reform health care, other options must be considered. How might this effect the reimbursements for providing care?

Psychopharmacology can be useful in all stages of couples' therapy. Using a high-functioning couple as a case example, the author illustrates how psychopharmacology, together with psychotherapy, can be used to facilitate treatment success.

Psychiatrists, neurologists, primary care physicians, physician assistants, psychologists, psychiatric nurses, social workers and other mental health care professionals. Continuing education credit is available for most specialties. To determine if this article meets the requirements of your specialty, please contact your state licensing board.

While anorexia nervosa was the first eating disorder to be recognized through the 19th century reports of Gull (1874) and Lassque (1873), bulimia nervosa and the less well-defined eating disorder not otherwise specified (EDNOS) syndromes are more common.

How can psychiatrists and psychotherapists optimize their collaboration and individual skills to facilitate treatment success?

There is no question that psychotherapy and psychopharmacology can be successfully integrated. Indeed, there are still many psychiatrists left in this country who talk to patients and families, provide both psychotherapy and psychopharmacology, and care for patients in a biopsychosocial context.

The use of Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs) by medical professionals has many advantages over traditional paper schedulers. The following is a compilation of additional resources offering information for using and integrating this new technology in your practice. For more information on choosing a PDA to enhance your practice, please see the article How Technology Will Affect Your Practice in the June 2002 issue of Psychiatric Times (p36).

As a psychiatrist working in a state hospital, this author defends the long-term commitment of sexual offenders to institutions and offers insights on factors determining prognosis.

What effects will the verdict from the murder case against Andrea Yates have on the public's view of the insanity defense?

When I raise my rates he folds his fifty dollar co-pay and slides it up my desk like an enlisted man on leave easing a big bill in a stripper's G-string. He tells me I'm like his war-time whore who loved him on payday and left when his money ran dry. Each week I lead him in our dance, excite him with my offer to listen to his dreams. And I tell myself I do it to ease his suffering, because I get paid, because I took an oath. But every month, when we devour another round of sessions, I fill out forms for insurance pimps who won't pay unless I reveal the private parts.

It is amazing how a psychiatric practice changes over the years including the switch to managed care from fee-for-service, larger caseloads, new medications and new treatment options. Despite all the changes, both for better and for worse, one psychiatrist is enjoying his practice as much today as ever before.

Antidepressant use among children and adolescents is on the rise. What prescribing patterns are being formed? Researchers are suggesting that more research into psychiatric pharmacogenetics may produce better treatment outcomes. Will it one day be possible to predict treatment response?

A case history illustrates the need to consider psychosocial approaches to treating postpartum depression.

Advances in basic behavior and neuroscience research have been stunning, but until quite recently, efforts to encourage the clinical application of new knowledge have not kept pace. To aid in applying new knowledge to important public health issues, the National Institutes of Health has placed emphasis on "translational research," which aims to provide a bridge between basic research and clinical care. Particularly promising areas of study are highlighted.

Personal digital assistants have the ability to make your practice more efficient. What are the choices of PDAs on the market, and which one is best for you?

How has the emphasis on economics and mental health care affected the quality of care? Has it improved under managed care? Implementing prevention strategies and improved quality, although initially costly, may save money in the long term.

Ask me about power and I'll tell you cigar smoke, the way it darkens like a thunderhead

The increased money being spent on marketing pharmaceuticals directly to patients is raising questions. Are patients indeed benefiting by becoming more aware of their health, or are they simply being used as a target market for the latest drug?

Patient Drug Information From Mass Media Sources

New medications for the treatment of various addictions are currently under investigation. However, there are still substantial barriers, on the part of health and social policies and the patients themselves, to patients receiving these new treatments. Many of these issues were explored at the 2001 American Society of Addiction Medicine's State of the Art in Addiction Medicine conference.

Several confounding factors need to be taken into account before labeling a patient as treatment-resistant. What options are available for treating a patient with schizophrenia who has been diagnosed as such?

Although treatment of obsessive-compulsive disorder has improved, a large percentage of patients do not respond to pharmacological therapy. What familial or comorbid factors might influence the outcome for these patients?

For various reasons, up to half of patients stop taking their prescribed antidepressant within three months. Side effects are often the biggest obstacle in maintaining treatment adherence. How can clinicians help patients deal with the sexual dysfunction and weight gain that often accompany psychotropic treatment?

There is a range of meaning that underlies patients' violent acts against themselves. The usefulness of so-called "safety contracts" to actually predict suicidal behavior is questioned.

In warn-torn Afghanistan, refugees continue to struggle to survive in 20-year-old "temporary" shelters, without proper food and suffering from the psychiatric consequences of trauma. What are psychiatrists doing to help?

Dropping the Lamb

Mandatory reporting laws rarely require reporting by psychiatrists. Psychiatrists need to treat the patient, rather than act as mandated reporters, and be knowledgeable about the dynamics and consequences of domestic violence and about available community resources and advocates that can help the patient.

A bill just signed into law by New Mexico's governor will allow psychologists to obtain prescribing privileges. Will this provide more care to underserved populations, or will it simply put patients at risk?

While the public perceives that many criminals escape punishment by pleading insanity, the truth is that very few people are ever found not guilty by reason of insanity. Society has to decide whether they want to lock up everyone who does any bad thing or excuse the behavior of people who are not capable of controlling their own behavior.