COVID-19

Within days of the COVID-19 pandemic, students scattered from campus to locations around the country, and their psychiatric care was interrupted at a time when they needed support more than ever.

It is one thing to hear from colleagues about how patients and the public are coping with the pandemic. It is quite another to hear directly from children. Five-year-old Adam, his parents, and I invite you to join Team Earth. Here’s why.

"Mom says viruses don’t attack countries, they attack people. And across countries we are still one people living under one roof." More in this pictorial and therapeutic dialog between a 5-year-old and his mother about the pandemic.

Alcoholism and addiction to other mood-altering drugs are biological medical problems, either inherited or acquired. Incurable but treatable, not all addictions lead to catastrophic consequences.

During this time, many individuals with Alzheimer disease are homebound with their caregivers. Here's how clinicians can help caregivers deal with common dilemmas under stay-at-home orders.

The skin is the biological mantle that protects us from the influence of many environmental factors, it is also that which is being exposed not only to sunlight but to viruses and bacteria as well.

Lithium may have antiviral properties, but it also carries unique risks during a viral infection.

What is a “normal” reaction to this pandemic? How does one adapt to a new normal? How does an organization that has to downsize drastically adjust successfully, especially after the “honeymoon period”?

Lithium has successfully deterred over a dozen viruses, but how will it affect the novel coronavirus? In this podcast, Chris Aiken, MD, speaks with Janusz Rybakowski, PhD, MD, a pioneer in lithium research who helped discover its antiviral properties.

19 ways I think, and hope, that if implemented might help us, psychiatrists, mitigate the current situation.

Practical tips to help clinicians get started or to hone skills in telepsychiatry.

Dr Jud Brewer discusses the benevolent effects of altruism during the coronavirus pandemic in this brief podcast.

As we face a medical and existential crisis, how do we find strength and cope with stress and trauma? A podcast with Ronald W. Pies, MD.

Psychiatry is being thrown, ready or not, into the world of telemedicine. Here you will find  lessons, tips, and answers to common questions from psychiatrists who have successfully taken the leap.

Mental health professionals charged with compassionate care for those facing a radically changing world filled with loss have one narrow task.

Three mountains must be climbed to emerge unscathed.

Health professionals' emotional reactions to the COVID-19 pandemic range from numbness, anxiety, fear, and rapid shifts to survivor guilt, helplessness, and feelings of detachment. Here: Stress management tactics and what to expect today and beyond.

The use of social distancing to “flatten the curve” and prevent the spread of COVID-19 has catapulted the use of telehealth.

For an inspiring model of communal hope and resilience under a dire threat to survival over COVID-19 fears, the author turns to the Fekalists, the prisoners condemned to be sanitation workers in the Lodz ghetto in Nazi-occupied Poland, his parents among them.

Online tools are bringing much needed social interaction while staying safe at home, according to this teen.

At a time when preserving public health is our highest priority, why would we want to encourage excessive alcohol use among the vulnerable?

Dr Gabrin said not to forget about the most powerful drugs we have in the pandemic-tolerance, kindness, empathy, compassion, and patience.

Slipping out of quarantine, we walk hand in hand. Comforting words that this, too, shall pass.

When I first learned of Anne Frank’s story, I could barely imagine the fear, the loneliness, and the isolation. During these last few weeks, I realized there is so much young people can learn from her.

They are models of the essence of heroism that is being seen in health professionals and the public during the pandemic.

In these uncertain times, many look to Franklin D. Roosevelt’s quote “The only thing we have to fear is . . . fear itself.” But what does that really mean?

Recommendations from the International Society of Bipolar Disorders Task Force on Chronobiology and Chronotherapy and the Society for Light Treatment and Biologic Rhythms.

The current COVID-19 pandemic has raised a number of issues related to the role and importance of psychiatrists compared with medical colleagues at this time of widespread illness and massive changes.

So begins this transformative journey to calm, peace, and tranquility in the face of a “coronacopia” of life upending challenges.

We often push thoughts of death far out of our awareness, but at the present time they unavoidably re-emerge. Can we learn something helpful from this?