Slideshow: Nonconventional and Integrative Treatments of ADHD
June 21st 2013It is important for mental health professionals to be familiar with research findings about widely used complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) treatments of ADHD in order to provide patients with accurate information on efficacy, safety, and appropriate use. Presented here are some of the results from several pivotal studies.
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The Medicalization of Grief: What We Can Learn From 19th-Century Nervousness
March 2nd 2013Concerns are raised about DSM-5 revisions in the definition of depression. Many worry that eliminating the bereavement exception in the guidelines for the diagnosis of major depressive disorder represents a dangerous move.
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Sports Psychiatry and the Super Bowl Champs
February 9th 2013The team psychiatrist for Super Bowl Champs, the Baltimore Ravens, draws on his own professional career of working with athletes of all ages and levels and provides a comprehensive presentation of the literature in the emerging field of sports psychiatry.
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Practical Tips From New Research on ADHD
November 6th 2012Research over the past 2 decades has demonstrated that ADHD occurs frequently and causes considerable suffering in patients and their families. ADHD begins in early childhood and persists through adolescence and into adulthood in 70% of those affected.
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Popping Pills: No Solution for Bad Schools
October 25th 2012A recent article in the New York Times reports that doctors are prescribing stimulant drugs to compensate for the bad schools their child patients have to attend. Rates of ADHD have tripled in the last 15 years-precisely because many kids are being diagnosed with fake ADHD to make them eligible for medications and/or extra school services.
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Fighting the Wrong War on Drugs
August 30th 2012Seventy percent of antidepressants are prescribed by primary care doctors with little training in their proper use, under intense pressure from Big Pharma, drug salespeople, and misled patients, after rushed 7-minute appointments and subject to no systematic auditing. The cash-strapped FDA is beholden to industry for funding. And it gets worse.
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ADHD and Sleep Disorders in Children
June 13th 2012Sleep changes associated with psychotropic drugs are common enough to justify routinely obtaining a baseline sleep diary before beginning treatment, even when the initial screening for sleep disorders indicates that no further investigation is needed.
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How to End a Psychiatric Epidemic: The Redemption of Psychiatry
June 12th 2012In light of our problems and uncertainties about the state of current psychiatry, or perhaps because of them, what might describe good psychiatry? Following are some suggestions for what we, as psychiatrists, can do.
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Does Evidence-Based Medicine Discourage Richer Assessment of Psychopathology and Treatment?
April 5th 2012The paradigm for modern psychiatry is evidence-based medicine (EBM)-it represents proven treatments for defined diagnoses. But there are major problems with this position, starting with the fact that while they are superior to placebo, evidence-based treatments too often are ineffective.
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New Guidelines Shake Up Treatment of Agitation
March 27th 2012Agitated patients who display “excessive verbal and/or motor behavior”-can be loud, disruptive, hostile, sarcastic, threatening, hyperactive, and even combative. This article discusses new best practices and guidelines for agitation.
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