Special Reports

Familiarity with self-disorders is an indispensable tool in diagnosing a patient suspected for developing schizophrenia. Such knowledge improves communication with the patient and may serve as a starting point for therapeutic intervention.

Living with a mental illness is all too often accompanied by poverty and social disadvantage, which contribute to shortened life spans and reduced quality of life. However, there approaches for addressing many of the preventable causes of poor health and mortality in this patient population.

Policy initiatives can improve both physical and mental health care quality and outcomes for those with serious mental illnesses.

Mental health conditions are highly prevalent in homeless populations. Further research and advocacy are needed to address the obstacles that homeless individuals encounter in accessing mental health care.

The mortality rate is unacceptably high in patient with serious mental illnesses. Several psychosocial interventions have been developed that may benefit these patients.

The premature mortality of individuals with depression is an alarming public health concern. Physical exercise may help address this concern, but it represents an underutilized intervention.

The associations between sleep/rhythms and psychiatric disorders are not well understood. With additional research we can better address key issues and improve patient outcomes.

The steadily rising rate of suicide in the US is a vexing public health crisis. Among the many risk factors for suicidal thoughts and behaviors is sleep disturbance.

Circadian rhythms have a profound effect on our mental and physical health. Indeed, mental health and circadian health are tightly entwined, and circadian interventions can improve mood and well-being, even in healthy people.

As psychiatrists we must remember that comorbidities is often the rule, not the exception. This is especially true for obsessive and compulsive disorder (OCD).

OCD in the general population often differs from OCD that presents in the perinatal period. It is imperative to recognize, assess, and treat perinatal OCD to improve maternal and child outcomes and have a transgenerational impact.

OCD symptoms can be quite difficult to recognize. Not understanding what is happening, patients tend to be ashamed and suffer in silence, often resulting in a period of 8 to 10 years of untreated illness and long-term negative outcomes.

This review highlights an important diagnostic and therapeutic task: the importance of differentiating true bipolar disorder/obsessive-compulsive disorder comorbidity from BD with secondary OCD.

Despite heterogeneity in symptoms, there is growing realization that common neurobiological processes may contribute to OCD vulnerability and its persistence.

The articles in this Special Report focus on the interplay between trauma and its consequences, including violent behaviors, substance use disorders, and stroke. Taken together, the articles may contribute to a better understanding of-and treatment development for-patients exposed to trauma.

Ultimately, the decision about involuntary treatment is about risk, not predictable outcomes. In many cases, however, these decisions are much more difficult and, until our crystal balls arrive, our best efforts may still fall short.

Psychotic violence is associated with primary psychotic disorders such as schizophrenia, schizoaffective disorder, and bipolar disorder. While it may be that psychotic violence is the least common type of violence in inpatient environments, it is also the most treatable.

This generation of young people may have a unique risk of exposure to stress and researchers and clinicians are increasingly concerned about the long-term health consequences of such chronic exposure for young adults.

With their early age of onset, high prevalence, chronicity, and pervasive impact on multiple domains of functioning, the burden of mood disorders exceeds that of virtually all medical conditions in the US and globally in terms of disability, cost, and suffering.

Just as the progress over recent decades has improved the clinical evaluation and management of BD among children and adolescents, the remaining gaps serve to inform future progress.

Although multiple interventions exist for major depressive disorder (MDD), only partial response is achieved in many patients and recurrence is common. Combining medication and psychotherapy may enable more effective treatment of MDD.

From diagnosis to treatment, paraphilias and paraphilic disorders present unique challenges for the general psychiatrist.

Sexual life is not just about sexual identity and sexual behavior. 

When people turn to mental health professionals about sexual problems-cyber or otherwise-how comfortable and informed are we?

Adolescents explore their sexuality. In most cases, this exploration is normative. At times, however, compulsive sexual behavior is developed and maintained.

Transgender adolescents and their families experience barriers to care and specialized providers might not always be available. However, the work with transgender adolescents can be rewarding.

To improve access to and quality of mental health care for individuals who identify as LGBTQ, it is important for clinicians to become allies to this marginalized community.

The rise of the Internet and smart phones has created a proliferation of “sexting” between adults and, even more concerning, youths.