Addiction & Substance Use

Deep brain stimulation (DBS) may hold promise for patients with treatment-resistant and severe major depression and obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). However, it may not be the best choice for patients with Parkinson (PD) disease who display certain compulsive behaviors, reported researchers from the Cleveland Clinic and from Brown Medical School (Providence, Rhode Island) at the annual meeting of the American Academy of Neurological Surgeons, which took place April 22-27 in San Francisco.

The prevalence and debilitating nature of some of the personality disorders has impeded the study of psychopharmacology in these conditions. However, important advances have been made in the last several years.

Suicidality in patients with borderline personality disorder is chronic. It is important to distinguish these patients from those with classic mood disorders, who are suicidal only when acutely depressed.

This article focuses on data concerning the efficacy of mood stabilizers in the treatment of BPD.

The evidence showing a relationship between mental disorders in childhood and adulthood has increased in the last several decades.

An examination of recent research on psychosocial treatments for personality disorders, including randomized controlled trials and empirically supported therapies as well as dialectical behavior therapy.

Mentalization-based treatment (MBT) and transference-focused psychotherapy (TFP) are relatively complex and specialized treatments for the treatment of borderline personality disorder.

Dr Ronald Pies questions the statements in regards to antidepressant response time from an October 2005 article in Psychiatric Times.

Although psychiatrists and other mental health professionals are more likely to be stalked than the average person, they receive little training regarding stalking.

How does the difference between objective evidence and subjective evidence relate to the practice of psychiatry?

You are surprised when a patient of yours, a physician recovering from a substance abuse problem, tests positive for morphine. Do you believe his explanation of a false-positive result?

With expansion of the concept of bipolar disorder (BD), there has been concern about the potential for overdiagnosis. However, diagnostic errors in bipolar disorder are currently skewed towards underdiagnosis.

The psychiatric community has a need for diagnostic and predictive tests. Some recent techniques have just become available for clinical care.

Cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) for children with anxiety disorders may be especially effective when the family is included in treatment.

Should physicians be allowed to assist in their patients' dying, and how can physician-assisted suicide be reconciled with the physician’s role as a healer?

The common sense notion that a child will benefit from an improvement in her mother’s depression has been confirmed in a prospective evaluation.

Antidepressants may have a protective effect on the hippocampal atrophy seen in patients with severe, untreated depression. This atrophy may be caused by an overabundance of glucocorticoids.

How effective is psychotherapy for the treatment of depression in children and adolescents?

Reexamining the Link Between Antidepressantsand Suicidality in Children and Adolescents

Parkinson disease, depression, hallucinations, psychosis, suicidality, motor control, psychiatric adverse effects

There is hope for patients with schizophrenia who do not respond to first-generation antipsychotic drugs: phase 2 results of the CATIE study show that second-generation antipsychotic drugs may be effective.

Every young woman who reads Pride and Prejudice imagines herself as the heroine, Elizabeth. Can a male director who confesses a lack of literary influences create a faithful adaptation of Jane Austen’s beloved work?

Eating disorders in patients with schizophrenia have been underappreciated and poorly studied. Profiling characteristic phenotypic patterns will help clarify the distinctions among eating behaviors that are part of the spectrum of schizophrenia, those that represent distinct coexistent entities, and those that represent overlapping comorbidity.

Emotional maltreatment is of two major types: emotional abuse and emotional neglect. While emotional abuse is easier to identify, emotional neglect is subtler, possibly more damaging, and poses even more challenging barriers to definition and study.

The shift toward biologic preeminence has led to psychiatric residency programs de-emphasizing psychotherapy education. How does psychotherapy fit into the “age of the brain”?

Increased demand for accountability is requiring more clinicians to supplement their judgments of patient outcome with standardized and objective protocols. The protocol outlined here is a model or jumping-off point for outcome evaluation.

Childhood adversities associated with suicide risk include childhood maltreatment, problematic family relationships, socioeconomic hardship, and difficult relationships with peers. Acute suicide prevention strategies should focus on the treatment of contributory psychiatric disorders and on the crises that may precipitate suicidal behavior.

The impact of terrorism reaches many aspects of health and health care: acute and chronic symptoms of anxiety and depression, changes in health-related behaviors, and long-term strain and tension.

Because hoarding occurs in a substantial portion of patients with neurodegenerative disorders, neurologists are likely to encounter patients with this problem. Until recently, they had little to offer their patients or the patients' caregivers. Compulsive hoarding can cause severe impairment and presents intriguing psychopathology, yet it has received little systematic study, and no effective treatment is currently on the market.

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