News

The latest information released by the US Army reveals that last year American soldiers attempted suicide at the rate of about 5 /day. There were 160 successful suicides last year and during June the rate was 1/day. Military research has reported that one in 10 Iraq veterans may develop a severe case of PTSD.

With the transition of patients with mental illness from the beds of psychiatric institutions into the community the need for knowledgeable mental health professionals continues to grow. Correctional psychiatry has evolved in recent years and presents special challenges for clinicians, which this handbook deftly addresses. Contributing authors with various backgrounds provide a broad range of expertise.

Despite these divergent books, it is important to avoid characterizing ECT as controversial. The Shorter-Healy and Dukakis books should dampen the controversy, because they characterize ECT as a safe, effective, and important treatment that psychiatry almost forgot. With its emotion-laden accusations and name-calling, the Andre book will inflame opinions.

seroquelxrV2-home

When your patient on antidepressant therapy has unresolved depressive symptoms and has an inadequate response, consider SEROQUEL XR (quetiapine fumarate) as the next step.

July 2010 Issue Quiz

What's the annual nonfatal violent crime rate against Psychiatrists? How often is ADHD in adults correctly diagnosed? These questions and more from the July 2010 issue of Psychiatric Times.

Two recent studies by Harvard psychologists deliver promising data from 2 tests that may help clinicians predict suicidal behavior. The markers in these new tests involve a patient’s attention to suicide-related stimuli and the measure of association with death or suicide.

The discipline of evolutionary psychology views modern human behaviors as products of natural selection that acted on the psychological traits of our ancestors. A subdiscipline, evolutionary psychiatry, tries to find evolutionary explanations for mental disorders.

While I sit in the third row of my synagogue on Saturday morning, reciting the traditional portions of the Sabbath service, I have running through my mind an additional and more intensely felt prayer-that none of my fellow congregants will approach me later to discuss their personal psychiatric care.

The contents of this volume are, as the cover emphasizes, “real stories from real people.” Clinicians who practice in a setting that allows time to really listen to patients have already heard these stories. These would be clinicians who have learned that listening to small details in a patient’s history helps one recognize patterns not described in the DSM.

Psychiatric Times bids a very fond farewell to our long-time board member Jeffrey L. Cummings, MD, who was the originator of the Psychiatric Times “Brain and Behavior” column, which he penned for several years.

In an earlier posting, I considered the merits and flaws of the DSM-5 online website. For this posting, I consider the significance and implications of a cyber-DSM.

A brief report recently published in Science confirms the key role of dopamine (DA) in impulsive behavior. The researchers found that impulse control directly correlated with the amount of DA released in the striatum.

Houston, we have a problem. There is a critical shortage of psychiatrists. And the problem is not in Houston alone-it includes the entire state of Texas, and every other state in the union (Mid-town Manhattan, Boston’s Beacon Hill, and Sacramento Street in San Francisco might be exceptions).

The authors are affiliated with the section of General Internal Medicine at Yale University School of Medicine, in New Haven, CT. Dr. Tetrault is an assistant professor of medicine, Dr. Fiellin is an associate professor of medicine, and Dr. Sullivan is an assistant professor of medicine.

Recent findings indicate that social interaction is a key to living longer. Theoretical models have suggested that social relationships influence health through stress reduction and by more direct protective effects that promote healthy behavior.

It is easy to claim the presumed high ethical ground when one is not involved in the real life situation at hand. It is also easy to project and proclaim strong positions in order to cover our own inadequacies and anxiety.