News

What effect does exposure to violence in video games have on behavior? These authors examine the evidence.

Psychiatric Times welcomes Drs Allan Tasman and Michelle Riba as our new Editor and Deputy Editors in Chief.

In the USA, we have drive-thru food, pharmacies, and banks. And now we have drive-thru viewing at funeral homes.

The news today is good for our mental health. More Americans have health insurance. One survey shows a drop in the numbers of those who've experienced serious psychological stress in the past 30 days.

"Go inward, so that you can go onward, and then upward." Here: two things that can help keep us happy.

Here's a fascinating study of consumer attitudes towards doctors among patients receiving antidepressants. The conclusions help us understand what goes wrong in the doctor-patient relationship and suggest steps needed to fix it.

It's always a brain tumor when I have a headache. “Don’t be crazy,” I tell myself, “You’re just inventing a doctor-mind catastrophe.”

How can we get even better at customizing treatment for our patients and thereby achieve improved outcomes? How do we avoid becoming relegated to mere brokers of psychopharmacologic commodities? A few thoughts in this brief communication.

Instead of a military search and destroy mission, this psychiatrist proposes a psychological search and revive mission.

What can we-the public and professionals-try to do to prevent suicide, ranging from our individual relationships to international relationships?

Racism in basketball . . . domestic violence in football. Does sports cause more psychological damage than benefits?

It should be clear that racism remains a major problem in the US-in sports, psychiatry, mental health treatment, and elsewhere.

Non-adherence to prescribed medication by patients with psychiatric disorders is one of the greatest challenges reported by clinicians.

A significant number of patients have some degree of personality pathology that can interfere with treatment, whether they receive medication or some form of psychotherapy. But how can clinicians develop a strong therapeutic alliance with patients who have personality disorders? An expert explains.

A comprehensive adjustment to life after having had a psychotic episode and diagnosis of schizophrenia is a relatively new concept. An expert describes the post-psychotic adjustment process.

We have medications that can affect serotonin, norepinephrine, and-to a lesser extent-dopamine. Many other neurotransmitters are involved with mood disorders, but we have no medications yet to target them. Neurostimulation offers a non-systemic somatic approach to depression, often with an improved side effect profile. More in this Q&A.

The son of convicted Ponzi schemer Bernard Madoff died this week. As Andrew Madoff's death indicates, you don't stop being a father when your children are adults.

"That brother is my sister," says the commander of a former Navy Seal who who has now transitioned into being a female.

Suicide is not being adequately addressed in terms of prevention, and part of that process is better education of mental health professionals and primary care physicians. More in this expert Q&A.

In fighting Ebola in West Africa, healthcare givers have knowingly put their own lives at risk. If that isn't following the medical ethics principle of putting the patient first, what is?

If there is an action that is further from sitting next to someone and trying to understand the psychology of their brain, it is standing next to someone and preparing to behead them.

A video summarizing key points of a presentation titled “Agitation and Aggression: Managing the Acute Episode and Beyond, An Evidence-Based Approach.”

People feel free to post comments on social media sites that they would never dare say to someone’s face. The cure, if only a partial one, is to get out of social media and to start living a real life. What is your opinion on this issue?

The menopausal transition is characterized by sex hormone variability and a vulnerability to depressive symptoms and major depressive episodes. The rate of new-onset major depressive episodes is increased during the menopausal transition, as is the experience of depressive symptoms.

Chronobiology-the science of daily (circadian), monthly, tidal, and seasonal rhythms-has undergone exponential growth in the past decade, with major discoveries at the molecular and neuroanatomic level.

If we didn't so stigmatize the severely mentally ill, we would feel an urgent responsibility to rescue them immediately from prison and homelessness.

Military veterans are ubiquitous in our practices and in our lives. The impact of the past several years of armed conflict is greater than many think-and much greater than simply the number of veterans in your practice or your community.

A proper psychiatric diagnosis requires the ability to elicit information, identify symptoms, and recognize behavioral patterns. Dr Michael First, author of DSM-5 Handbook of Differential Diagnosis, summarizes key points in this brief video.

The “story behind the story” is not the over-prescription of antidepressants-though it happens-but the under-availability of optimal treatment.