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A recently published NIH study of 112 children suggested that some children might possibly outgrow autism.

Schizophrenia has long been considered a neurodevelopmental disorder in which onset of diagnostic symptoms in late adolescence or adulthood is the end result of a decades-long interaction between genes and environment that begins in the womb.

The 3% to 5% of kids who are particularly gifted are also at special risk for being tagged with an inappropriate diagnosis of mental disorder. Caution is necessary when diagnosing.

The federal government must realize that decades of allowing mental health care to go begging leaves a very weak chance of detecting or treating those who need help.

Less common but still important syndromes connected with Alzheimer disease include traumatic brain injury, infectious and inflammatory disorders, alcohol-induced dementia.

Cognitive decline feels as though a little man is inside the elderly patient's head, with darkness all around him. To the front, some light seeps in through the eyes. Sounds come from a distance, muted, like in a heavy fog.

In addition to having an excellent safety profile, ECT is widely acknowledged to be the most effective acute antidepressant treatment.

Bringing the arts and humanities to psychiatry requires bringing these areas of study into our education, our research and our practice models.

Shakespeare's understanding of the human condition miraculously transcends his culture, time, and place.

Freud famously quipped: "The creative writer cannot evade the psychiatrist nor the psychiatrist the creative writer."

After each violent tragedy, the politicians hypocritically mourn and harrumph, but wind up buckling under pressure from the NRA, fiscal constraints, and the prison and gun lobbies. Repeated dramatic events can shake the complacency and cowardice of a stalemated Congress and state legislatures.

Digital technology provides many benefits to clinical practice but only if you know how to avoid the associated pitfalls. This slideshow provides easily accessible information for best practices for using e-mail, text messaging, search engines, blogs, etc.

Research efforts for LGBT patients include creating innovative medical and mental health services that lead to the training of students and practitioners and promote the development of outreach strategies specific to today’s critical needs.

It is yet unclear whether the overwhelming shock of Newtown will galvanize action not only to prevent future mass murderers, but also to finally reduce the public health and mental health risks of more chronic, common, and routine gun violence in America.

The discovery of an unknown family member can bring about joy or grief, and raise many clinical questions about the psychodynamics that are at play within families.

Brian Miller, MD, MPH, Schizophrenia Section Editor for Psychiatric Times, is an Assistant Professor on a research tenure track in the Department of Psychiatry and Health Behavior at Georgia Regents University.  He earned a BS in mathematics from Vanderbilt University, a combined MD/MPH degree from The Ohio State University, and a PhD in psychiatric epidemiology from the University of Oulu (Finland). He completed his general psychiatry residency and fellowship in psychotic disorders at GRU, where he served as Chief Resident, and joined the faculty in 2010. Dr Miller’s  current research focuses on inflammation/ cytokines as a potential clinical state and relapse predictive marker in schizophrenia, and is funded by an NIMH K23 Mentored Patient-Oriented Research Career Development Award and the NIH Clinical Loan Repayment Program Award. He has been recognized with several young investigator awards, the 2010 Laughlin Fellowship from the American College of Psychiatrists, and a 2011 Exemplary Psychiatrist Award from the National Alliance on Mental Illness.

Borderline Personality Disorder - Psychogenic Movement Disorders - Myalgic Encephalomyelitis - Migraine

Concerns are raised about DSM-5 revisions in the definition of depression. Many worry that eliminating the bereavement exception in the guidelines for the diagnosis of major depressive disorder represents a dangerous move.

It has moved PFAMC from the back of the book (where it is not a mental disorder) to front and center in the chapter on Somatic Symptom Disorders (where now it will be a mental disorder).

A recent symposium brought together some of the nation’s leading experts to talk about promising advances in psychiatry and to address areas where progress has faltered.

Astrocytic signaling to adenosine receptors results in the robust reduction of depressive-like behaviors associated with sleep deprivation.

Major depression is a common chronic illness within the general US population. What is the approximate prevalence for MDD in the US population?

PTSD is a psychiatric illness resulting from a physical or psychological trauma that is sometimes related to warfare, but of course occurs in the case of civilian trauma as well. However, wars have been a propitious time for studying PTSD.

Diagnosing rape as mental disorder is an improper use of psychiatric diagnosis and promotes the abuse of psychiatric commitment to further what would otherwise be an unconstitutional form of preventive detention.

Chronic exposure to addictive drugs like cocaine produces a progressive pattern of synaptic plasticity in reward circuits that can continue to develop well into periods of drug abstinence.

The American Academy of Psychoanalysis and Dynamic Psychiatry welcomes all psychiatrists interested in psychotherapy and psychodynamics and has as its mission keeping psychodynamic therapy as an integral part of the psychiatric profession.

The Embassy of Italy in Washington, DC recently hosted the first of 2 workshops on “Leaders and Terrorists: Psychological Perspectives on National Security.”

Childhood has so many conflicts and worries, so many triumphs and disappointments-how can one reduce it to a notion of normality?