Addiction & Substance Use

Pediatric psychosomatic research shows that emotional, behavioral, and psychiatric symptoms are found more often in children and adolescents with chronic illnesses than in healthy children.

Evidence showing the effectiveness of psychopharmacologic and psychotherapeutic management of functional gastrointestinal disorders over standard medical treatment is increasing.

There is a tendency to avoid psychiatric medications during pregnancy, but the high prevalence of psychiatric disorders in pregnant women means that women and their physicians must make impromptu decisions regarding the initiation or continuation of drug therapy.

This study examined national patterns in emergency department (ED) treatment of patients aged 7 to 22 years who were seen after episodes of deliberate self-harm. Data were from the 1997-2002 National Hospital Ambulatory Medical Care Survey. Population data from the 2000 US Census Bureau were used to estimate population visit rates for the age group studied.

Medical school graduation usually involves the Hippocratic Oath, in which physicians vow not to intentionally harm their patients. Keeping patients safe is another basic principle of patient care. Physicians are charged with ensuring that their patients are in a safe environment and minimizing risks to their patients by carefully selecting treatment options. In emergency psychiatric settings, patient safety is critical, especially when the patient is a danger to himself or herself or to others.

All physicians need to be aware of the medicolegal aspects of practicing medicine, but because emergency psychiatrists must sometimes treat patients against their will or act as consultants to determine capacity, they must be especially vigilant when dealing with the overlap between law and medicine.

Assessing a patient's capacity to make a decision about accepting or refusing a medical intervention should be performed quickly but systematically. Physicians from the department of psychiatry at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn, present a 3-dimensional model for evaluating capacity. This model includes the risk of the proposed treatment (high vs low), the benefit level of the treatment (high vs low), and the patient's decision about the treatment (accept vs refuse).

Trichotillomania (hair-pulling) was once thought to be rare, but recent estimates indicate that it affects 2% of people.

The online contents of the April 2006 issue of Psychiatric Times.

Insurance, Medicare, Pay-for-performance, P4P

Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, SSRIs, Suicidality, Depression, Major depressive disorder, Neonatal abstinence syndrome

Practitioners understand the wholeness and unity of their patients. Instead of being considered isolated organ systems or enzyme cycles, patients are understood as coherent entities composed of coordinated and interrelated processes and systems. This fundamental understanding guidesinvestigative and clinical care approaches in psychosomatic medicine.

While teen drug use continues to decline, it is the baby boomers who are suffering the greatest losses from substance abuse, and whose plight is largely overlooked by policy makers.

The 5 papers in this Special Report on neuropsychiatry provide compelling evidence for the renaissance of neuropsychiatry as a clinical discipline. Wehave every reason to hope that this will lead to a better understanding of the complex interactions between brain and behavior and will reduce the artificial distinction between neurology and psychiatry.

There is no shortage of evidence for the notion that society places a low value on the treatment of mental illness. Have psychiatrists bought into the attitude that mental health is less valuable than physical health?

A black box warning about increased suicidality in pediatric patients is now required for all antidepressant medications. This column reviews a number of studies on this topic that were published after the FDA advisory was issued.

During and after menopause, many women report impairments in cognitive functioning. Should hormones be prescribed in an effort to mitigate cognitive symptoms of menopause?

The recent evolution of neuropsychiatry/behavioral neurology as a subspecialty represents a paradigmatic shift regarding the responsibility of psychiatrists in diagnosing and managing behavioral disorders with concomitant and demonstrable brain pathology such as dementia or head injury. This authors define the clinical usefulness of electroencephalography in evaluating neuropsychiatric disorders.

The cost-effectiveness of treatment for Alzheimer disease has been questioned. But until the next generation of therapeutics arrives, cholinesterase inhibitors and memantine will probably remain essential components of therapy for cognition and function.

Sleep-associated movement disorders are common in the general population. When patients complain of sleep disturbance, psychiatrists should consider,and question for, features of nocturnal movement disorder.

The FDA advisories warning of increased suicide risk among children and adolescents beginning antidepressant therapy have alarmed the health care community--but it may actually be a disservice to withhold these medications from those who need them.

As many as 90% of Americans are exposed to at least one traumatic event in the course of their lives. Many more are exposed to more than one traumatic event. Short- and long-term sequelae of traumatic exposure vary greatly and range from complete recovery, to severe and debilitating PTSD.

Many of our female patients are more worried about breast cancer than heart disease. Because psychiatrists will almost certainly care for patients who have a history of breast cancer, Dr Riba reviews some of the major issues to consider.

Pilot studies show that preventing PTSD after vulnerable persons are exposed to extreme life-threatening trauma is possible, although we are in the very early stages of knowing exactly what to do.

About 25% of patients seen in epilepsy clinics and monitoring units who do not respond to antiepileptic drugs (AEDs) have received a misdiagnosis.1-3 The eventual diagnosis for most of these patients will be psychogenic nonepileptic seizure (PNES)1,4-a somatoform conversion disorder. It is treatable, but diagnosis, delivery of the diagnosis, and management present significant challenges. A major barrier to care has been the stigma associated with the label "psychogenic."