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Psychiatry is a wonderful specialty. We have highly effective medication and psychotherapy tools. Forty years of accumulated clinical research have given us a pretty clear idea of optimal treatment guidelines. With an accurate diagnosis and an appropriate treatment, most of our patients benefit greatly and many recover completely.

Osama Bin Laden is dead. 9/11 lives on. The sudden annihilation of the man responsible for that cruel and ultimately defining act brought me joy, and rekindled a sense of pride in our country and its capabilities.

The current situation in Japan has been called the worst crisis in the country since World War II. Relief effort organizations are urged to take hikikomori seriously when planning strategies to help the victims of the recent disasters in Japan.

The proposal to include "coercive paraphilia" as an official diagnosis in the main body of DSM-5 has been rejected. This sends an important message to everyone involved in approving psychiatric commitment under Sexually Violent Predator (SVP) statutes.

Many physicians are frustrated with government involvement, insurance companies, and reimbursement (or lack of reimbursement) systems. Does this prohibit you from helping your patients?

Excellence in psychopharmacology demands sensitivity to the associated ethical considerations. The key considerations of psychiatry are both complex and dynamic, and psychiatrists who develop and refine their ethics skill set will be in a better position to anticipate and respond to ethical dilemmas as they arise in their practice.

Like every drug or technology that has therapeutic value, MDMA (3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine) has potential risks and benefits. Unlike most other drugs under clinical investigation, MDMA has a complex and controversial history that has delayed dispassionate scientific investigation into its therapeutic use.

In addition to receiving birthday cards, on this birthday, one of our bloggers, Dr. Moffic, decided to send out a card to all those he loved. It is being reprinted here. "If you are what you love, There is no longer reason to be most modest, so step aside Muhammad Ali, for I Am The Greatest!"

What should clinicians do if they realize that they don’t like a particular patient who has come to them for help

An 81-year-old man presented to an urgent care facility with a 1-year history of pain in his right knee.

The only question is whether Congress will cut the mental health block grant again, in 2012-and by how much.

In this column, we explore how the judicious use of neural stem cells (NSCs) has led to a research Holy Grail: the creation of research-ready, patient-specific neurons.

See if you can tell if the following quote comes from religious wisdom or a CBT therapist: “To defeat depression, you must introduce a fresh perspective to your thinking. You must begin to replace troubling, destructive thoughts with positive, constructive ones.” To this, we say, “Amen.”

Richard Berlin, M.D.: “There is something about the condensed pressure of poetry that feels very natural to me.”

Is your practice’s computer infected? Perhaps, but that stack of papers on your desk might have a richer history of contamination.

The demand for security/privacy insurance is growing rapidly as health care practitioners realize that traditional insurance does not address privacy exposures.

Risk analysis is an ongoing process that should provide an organization with a detailed understanding of its risks and information necessary to address those risks in a timely manner, and the means to reduce associated risks to reasonable and appropriate levels.

Can the death of a terrorist be something to celebrate? Should it be? What can this tell us about ourselves? What is the "proper" reaction?

Psychosis at any phase of the illness can be extremely distressing, disruptive, and potentially dangerous for patient and family.

If ketamine is able to turn off a patient’s depression, even for one day, you have accomplished something important, whether or not you can maintain it. This is because you have at least given the patient hope . . . that in itself is very significant from a therapeutic perspective.

Rape is always a heinous, ugly, violent, and cruel crime. But the violence and cruelty that are part of all rapes should not be confused with the specifically motivated violence and cruelty that distinguish sexual sadism...

APA Annual Meeting Page2011 Annual Meeting ScheduleScientific Program - Schedule of Meeting Sessions Meeting Registration Housing ReservationsAPA Staff Contact ListCourse Brochure [pdf]

National Institute of Mental HealthThe mission of NIMH is to transform the understanding and treatment of mental illnesses through basic and clinical research, paving the way for prevention, recovery, and cure.

The Clinical Manual of Couples and Family Therapy is a succinct, well-written volume that provides evidence for the wisdom behind treatment of the family and/or involvement of the family when treating the patient.

I would recommend it for medical students who have been thrust into the role of primary decision maker for their patients, and clinicians who would appreciate a pocket supervisor to help them make treatment decisions.

The specific cause of Capgras syndrome has been hypothesized from neuropsychological and psychodynamic views.