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Dr Fogelson discusses how science has refined research designs to measure the efficacy of psychotropic drugs.

Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu, invited Convocation speaker at the American Psychiatric Association’s upcoming annual meeting, last year called for academic and cultural boycotts of Israel. Now, he is the target of planned protests by APA members who view him as making anti-Semitic statements.

Have a question?Send your psychiatry-related, clinical questions to editor@psychiatrictimes.com. If selected, we'll ask a specialist in the field to answer it in a future Q&A.

In my previous blog, The Missing Person in the DSM, I questioned whether the DSM diagnostic manual classifies psychiatric disorders or the individuals suffering from diagnostic disorders-Ms Smith’s bipolar disorder, or Ms Smith, a person with bipolar disorder.

The movie Bronson loosely follows the true story of the infamous "most violent prisoner" in the UK -- a man named Michael Peterson who later changed his name to Charles "Charlie" Bronson on the advice of his bare knuckle boxing promoter.

A large new study from Australia found that DSM-5 would cause a sky-rocketing 60% increase in the rate of alcohol use disorders.

FDA regulators are deciding whether to downgrade the risk classification of ECT from high to medium risk. In 1990, FDA regulators proposed declaring ECT devices safe for major depression but because of an uproar by ECT opponents, a final decision was never made.

Is it possible to “forgive” Jared Lee Loughner for what he is alleged to have done? Is it morally justifiable to do so? There are serious ethical problems with the notion that anyone other than the survivors of this horrific shooting can “forgive” the assailant.

Gary Greenberg, PhD is a psychotherapist, author, teacher, and historian of psychiatric diagnosis. His writings are characterized by penetrating insight, elegant wordsmithing, entertaining story telling, and a dig-deep, no-holds-barred search for underlying meaning.

Emerging research suggests that some individuals with particular types of substance use and abuse may be more likely to engage in suicidal behaviors. For example, those who use opiates, cocaine, or sedatives may have a noticeably higher risk of suicide than those who use other drugs.

What goes on in the minds of those who attempt suicide? Here: a psychologist who explores the myths that surround suicide notes "We need to get it in our heads that suicide is not easy, painless, cowardly, selfish, vengeful, self-masterful, nor rash."

There have been three positive developments. The rest of the DSM-5 news continues to be extremely worrisome, and time is running out.

A shortage of inpatient beds and staff at mental health facilities may mean that a patient presenting to an emergency department may be there for an extended period of time.

The recent mass murders in Arizona are the latest in our country's epidemic of horrible, hate inspired crimes. The 24/7 media punditry and political spinning has been disappointingly off point in a way suggesting that once again we will learn nothing from our mistakes and that such tragedies will continue to recur with distressing frequency.

In this blog, Dr Pols reviews The Politics of War Trauma: The Aftermath of World War II in Eleven European Countries, by Jolande Withuis and Annet Mooij (eds).

Should malingering be considered more likely than factitious disorder when a patient exhibits pseudologia fantastica? What condition persists for longer than 3 months, accompanies a disease process, and is associated with a bodily injury that has not resolved over time? These questions and more in this interactive quiz.

I’ve been deeply worried about corruption and greed in psychiatry for a long time. In reading the new book from Wendell Potter, formerly head of public relations at CIGNA, my worry has escalated into panic anxiety. Before discussing Potter’s work, let me review some of the widespread greed-related corruption of recent years.

As a practicing psychiatrist, you probably encounter a range of ethical dilemmas in your daily practice.

The Arizona Psychiatric Society and the American Psychiatric Association joined together to remember the victims of the Tuscon tragedy. The shooting left 6 dead and 14 others wounded, including US Rep Gabrielle Giffords, who lies in a medically induced coma recovering from a gunshot wound to the head.

Violence by patients towards staff members is an inherently complex matter for the physically and/or psychologically injured person. An expert in the field of forensic psychiatry answers a reader's question about what clinicians can do in the aftermath of an assault.

As expected from an Oxbridge graduate, author Catharine Arnold’s Bedlam: London and Its Mad is a well-written and very readable book. “This book is for all whose lives are touched by madness” is a laudable objective.

Psychiatrists face some unappetizing developments with regard to Medicare fees starting January 1, 2011. The terms of the new benefits are not nearly as specific as mental health groups pressed for.

Last week, I had a brief, but heated debate with a friend who is on the DSM-5 Task Force. He is strongly supporting a proposed new diagnosis for DSM-5 that I oppose just as strongly.

The treatment of incest victims is often painful and difficult. With patience, the vast majority of those who have experienced incest can experience considerable improvement and enjoy an enhanced quality of life without succumbing to repeated victimization.

The New York Times of Dec 20,2010 carried an alarming story. It seems that during the past decade, college students have suddenly become much more mentally ill.

Erroneous conclusions, and medical harm, can come from accepting any hypothesis uncritically, and growing evidence indicates that treatments based on disorder hypotheses for depression do cause harm.

Recently, the Substance Use Disorder Work group of the DSM-5 announced the inclusion of “craving” in the diagnostic criteria for all substance use disorders despite its lack of empirical support from the very analyses conducted by that Workgroup. In addition, no detailed literature review supports the decision to make “craving” a core symptom of Substance Use Disorder syndromes.

ABMS has responded to society’s demand for action to ensure the sustained competence of America’s physicians when they are in unsupervised practice and to ensure that clinicians provide quality care.

Recently, NARSAD presented its achievement awards for 2010-awards given to physicians and scientists doing cutting-edge work to better understand the mechanisms and causes of mental illness.