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Psychiatric Times asked this psychiatrist to compile and edit a series worthy of its readers’ attention. We hope you find that this special section has achieved the literary and professional standards we set.

Army psychiatrist MAJ Nidal Hasan sought to get out of the service, but the Army, which had poured hundreds of thousands of dollars into his military and medical training, offered him no legal exit.

I never take calls when I'm with a patient, except today when the phone rings from Boston-liver mets on his scan, biopsy tomorrow...

A dually trained family physician and psychiatrist wonders about his own relief when a patient misses his third clinic visit in a row.

Learning to talk openly with patients about their suicidal ruminations poses more of an emotional than intellectual challenge.

Despite pharma's retreat and the many challenges in psychiatric drug development -- as detailed here -- the current psychiatric drug pipeline is not totally dry.

IOCDA Week takes place from October 14 to 20, 2013, and is celebrated by a number of organizations across the US and around the world, including Columbia University Clinic for Anxiety and Related Disorders.

October is an active month for promoting public awareness of psychiatric illnesses and social programs that give hope to those affected by mental illness.

A newly published qualitative literature review found stimulants may provide neuroprotective effects for children with ADHD.

Ideology is much less important than common sense solutions. The mentally ill have many unmet needs and suffer from great and undeserved coercion.

In a PsychCongress presentation on perinatal mood disorders, Marlene Freeman, MD, stressed that treatment is essential for women with mood disorders-but whether to treat becomes complicated during a women’s reproductive years.

This member of the DSM-5 Work Group for Psychotic Disorders describes the 8 dimensions used to define the presentation of psychosis-the biggest and most clinically important of the changes in the schizophrenia and other psychotic disorders section.

You’ve come a long way, baby. But maybe not long enough, according to Dr Rajiv Tandon, who shared the evolution of schizophrenia diagnosis and highlighted the current status for attendees at the US Psychiatric and Mental Health Congress.

In this video, Dr H. Blair Simpson gives a brief overview of the hallmarks, themes, and common comorbidities found in OCD.

Big things are happening in Alzheimer disease research. Recent developments are shaping the future for assessment and diagnosis and allowing for early detection and treatment of the disease.

Can drugs be categorized as good (eg, medicinal), bad (eg, recreational with deleterious side effects and addiction issues), or is there a middle ground? That was the underlying theme in a lecture at PsychCongress, “Perils and Promise of Psychoactive Drugs: A Focus on Harm Reduction Psychiatry.”

It is hard for mental health professionals to discuss completed suicides. Legal fears, confidentiality concerns, shame, and stigma are formidable obstacles. But talk we must, for talking-and listening-is a key to prevention and treatment.

Lack of communication is often a key factor in mass murder, according Phillip Resnick, MD. Although HIPAA is important, the safety of the individual and the public should outweigh privacy issues, and “risk to human life always trumps confidentiality.”

You have a platform here to share with your colleagues your hopes and concerns about the impact of the Affordable Care Act on your practice.

If you could talk to a clinician-in-training about how they can better help people suffering from addiction, what would you say? A Q&A between Arjune Rama, MD, and comic Marc Maron.

An exchange that contributes in some small way to greater interaction and synergy among all of us who are trying to do our part to relieve emotional and mental suffering.

Some attorneys have argued that SSRIs cause serious adverse events, capable of compelling defendants to engage in strikingly complex criminal behavior. On close examination, however, these phenomena may be clearly distinguished from criminal behavior.

"Although at times we may need to wipe away blood and tears, through the process we become better physicians and ultimately, better people. These are the victories that we can attain in our ring," says this 4th-year medical student.

We avoid a basic aspect of human existence-namely, we are all a little lost and not knowing, and we had better accept this. In reminding our patients that the worst fate in life is not to suffer-but to suffer alone-we also remind ourselves.

Behavioral problems “masquerade” as physical symptoms. The time has come to treat the whole patient and to make psychiatry part and parcel of primary care.

Most persons who use CAM modalities to self-treat a mental health problem take prescription antidepressants concurrently. Combined use can result in serious supplement-drug interactions.

Here, suggestions for mental health professionals serving the needs of refugees from around the world who have been traumatized by violence.

It is the opinion of this psychiatrist that overtesting and overtreating is promoted and protected by the enormous economic and political power of the medical industrial complex. Here's just a beginning list of what needs to be done.

What is truth? In the end, it is not a forensic psychiatrist's place to judge. He or she is a cog in a bigger machine that is supposed to treat psychiatric illness.

Psychiatric Times is conducting its 2013 ethics survey. We invite you to share your perspective and participate in the survey.