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At the holidays, there is no shortage of inspirational movies, television shows, school plays, countless "…….Who Saved Christmas" specials, so perhaps this is the best time for you to share one of your own tales from your practice.

The face of the woman sitting across from me begins to quiver, and my job as a psychiatrist is to keep my mouth shut. I knew when she came in and said her beloved Scottie of 15 years had died how big a loss that was.

Contrary to the popular belief that quitting increases anxiety, a recent study reports that stopping smoking can lift depression, decrease anxiety, and give quitters a sense of accomplishment during the period of abstinence.

Do patients with the personality trait alexithymia have trouble understanding the written language? What percentage of patients with dementia have at least one psychiatric comorbidity? These and more in this quiz.

Billing 99213 for individual patients seen together in a group visit is fraud.

Medicare says no split/shared evaluation for a consult.

The end of this week could bring either a long-term delay of Medicare reimbursement cuts for physicians nationwide, either through true compromise or perhaps forced concession. Reports today, including from Politico, indicate that bipartisan leaders in the Senate have agreed on a proposal to delay Medicare reimbursement payment cuts to physicians under the sustainable growth rate (SGR) formula for a period of one year.

One of the most powerful features of an EHR is the instantaneous access that it offers providers to patient information. From a workstation at the office or at home, physicians can access their entire patient panel and quickly drill down into clinical minutiae with a speed and precision that a paper chart can’t touch.

A funny thing happened to me on the way back from the New Hampshire Governor’s Statewide Conference on Domestic & Sexual Violence. I don’t mean funny in a comedic sense, but rather in an unexpected, shocking sense.

We've just had Thanksgiving and I have been in a most thankful mood. I'm still feeling that way after returning to work--and even after an email from a colleague reminded me of one of the many problems facing our field.

I believe this book will serve as an invaluable resource for all students of psychodynamic theory as well as their teachers-and I would venture to say that this magisterial text is destined to become a classic.

Final guidance from the federal government is imminent about how much of a patient’s protected health information (PHI)-including psychotherapy notes-a psychiatrist must provide to a health insurer.

Recent attention has focused on identification of early signs that may identify children at risk for development of autism spectrum disorders (ASD).

The doctor’s role is to go beyond the obvious and to detect subtle determinants. Good diagnosticians have been trained to look beneath the loud symptom and consider underlying factors.

Patients’ stories (both content and structure) contain more therapeutically useful information than merely identifying and counting symptoms.

The neuroanatomical linkage that emerges from a normal part of business experience-the reaction to success and also to failure (especially if that failure happens to someone else)-is the focus of this column.

Marco Bellocchio, one of the most psychoanalytically oriented filmmakers of his generation, entered the annals of Italian cinema in the 1960s to almost universal acclaim from critics at home and abroad.

This 3-part manual on sexual disorders is edited by 2 psychiatrists who have been engaged for more than 20 years in clinical treatment of patients with sexual problems.

In a question-and-answer discussion with Dr Phillip Resnick, clinicians gained valuable insights into the legalities of psychiatry and how best to treat patients and protect the public (and themselves).

DEBATE When you get facts wrong, as Dr Halpern does, it is hard to end up with the right conclusions. He suggests incorrectly that my approach to forensic ethics leads to the conclusion that participation in interrogation is permissible, when exactly the opposite is true.

DEBATE In 2005, the Board of Trustees of the American Psychiatric Association (APA) prepared a Position Statement entitled Psychiatric Participation in Interrogation of Detainees

These issues-among others-raise this question: Is the addition of a new diagnosis such as TDD to DSM-5 the best way to manage the issue of classification of youths with chronic, severe irritability and potential misdiagnosis of bipolar disorder?

When did my colleagues grow so old? When did the women and men I’ve known for thirty years start to stoop and tremble? When did all the old Chiefs die?

During residency training, young doctors learn the requisite skills, knowledge, and values essential to the practice of medicine. We will all agree that to learn, the resident must have the desire and drive to master the essential knowledge and skills of his or her specialty.

As I lie in my hospital bed, attempting to breathe through my trach tube at a normal rate, waiting for my morning medication, and hoping to hear good, or at least manageable, results from my doctors when they come to me on rounds, my mind wanders. Despite the precariousness of my situation, I can’t help but smile as I think of my now monthly psychotherapy sessions.

As I was driving to work on February 10, 2010, I listened to the National Public Radio host Melissa Block talking about how children labeled “bipolar” may get a new diagnosis. I was shocked that the chair of one of the DSM5 work groups, David Shaffer, MD, would discuss a controversial diagnostic topic with the media.

New research into cholesterol-lowering statin drugs and serotonin-1A receptors may help explain the relationships between cholesterol levels and symptoms of anxiety and depression.

Creative people tend to see the world in novel and unconventional ways, and they often seek out intense and destabilizing experiences. Creative ideas are frequently generated during chaotic mental states characterized by loosening of associations that resemble the psychosis of mania or schizophrenia.