6 Ways for Psychiatry Residents to Find Their Niche
April 9th 2013Psychiatry residents can carve out a career in the area of psychiatry that interests them. If drawn to specialized topics, such as atypical bipolar disorder, club drugs, glutamate transporters, or genetic links to autism, then they should pursue those avenues.
White House Unveils BRAIN Initiative
April 5th 2013President Barack Obama proposed a new research initiative designed to further study and better understand, treat, prevent, and cure brain disorders including Alzheimer disease, traumatic brain injury, autism, posttraumatic stress disorder, and schizophrenia.
Diagnosis and its Discontents: The DSM Debate Continues
March 29th 2013When critics of psychiatric diagnosis insist that terms like “schizophrenia” or “bipolar disorder” are inherently stigmatizing, they are unwittingly perpetuating the very prejudice they wish to end. It is time to shine a bright light on this self-fulfilling prophecy.
For Persons With Serious Mental Illness, Weight Loss Is Possible
March 26th 2013Medication side effects of weight gain and increased appetite, together with non-adherence often found in persons with schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and other serious mental illnesses, have challenged clinicians in the past.
Treatment of Psychiatric Disorders in Patients With HIV/AIDS
March 25th 2013Mental illness is a risk factor for HIV infection. It brings a number of behavioral correlates that put patients at risk for getting infected. As HIV infection worsens, it begins to affect the brain, and cyclical relationship between the disease and mental illness begins.
Discrimination and Parity Violation Claims Levied Against Anthem BCBS of Connecticut
March 19th 2013Changes will mean patients will only be covered for psychiatrists’ services that include medical evaluation and management; CPT coding will not allow for coverage of psychotherapy as a separate and equal category for payment.
Adjustment Disorders: Diagnostic and Treatment Issues
March 18th 2013Adjustment disorder is one of the few psychiatric diagnoses for which the etiology, symptoms, and course, rather than symptoms alone, are central to making the diagnosis. Both emotional and behavioral disturbances are present and include low mood, tearfulness, anxiety, self-harm, withdrawal, anger, and irritability.
How Frame Analysis Can Guide the Therapeutic Process
March 18th 2013Frame analysis can not only help us to discern the roots of such standoffs but also to conceptualize specific ways of addressing the conflicts in therapeutic language with the patient, with the goal of forging an integrated approach to treatment.