Personalized Medicine and Psychiatry: Dream or Reality?
October 9th 2013This article explores the current state of knowledge regarding personalized medicine in psychiatry and discusses how the tools might be used to help psychiatrists understand the components of their patients’ unique endophenotypic profiles.
Neurostimulation Treatments in Psychiatry: An Overview and Recent Advances
October 9th 2013There have been considerable advances in the research on and clinical use of neurostimulation for psychiatric disorders, especially mood disorders and MDD. Three of the most recognized are reviewed here. An experimental new treatment-- trigeminal nerve stimulation-- is also briefly discussed.
The Silver Lining in the Graying of America: Healthy Aging Is the New Norm
October 9th 2013Clearly, old age is associated with unavoidable decline but in some instances can be mitigated by mental and physical exercise and social activity. How is the preservation of function despite illness and decline accomplished? Insights here. . .
To Treat or Not to Treat: That Is the Question With Perinatal Mood Disorders
October 4th 2013In 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.
Modest-But Clinically Useful-Changes for Psychotic Disorders in DSM-5
October 4th 2013This 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.
Limited Progress Made in Schizophrenia Understanding and Treatment
October 4th 2013You’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.
From the Streets to the Rx Pad: Do Party Drugs Have a Place in the Medical Office?
October 3rd 2013Can 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.”
Mass Murderers: Lack of Communication and Myths May Hinder Recognition
October 1st 2013Lack 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.”
Warning: Antidepressants May Cause Bank Robbery
September 27th 2013Some 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.
Learning the Ropes of Medical School: A Boxer’s Wisdom
September 26th 2013"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 Are All at Least a Little Lost and Off-Putting: On Transformation
September 25th 2013We 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.
Natural Products Used to Treat Depressed Mood as Monotherapies and Adjuvants to Antidepressants
September 23rd 2013Most 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.