Forensic Psychiatry

Test your knowledge on strategies to reduce and prevent restraints and seclusions among children and adolescents in psychiatric settings.

Labeling a (clinically unexamined) public figure as "dangerous" can do as much or more harm as promulgating a specific psychiatric diagnosis.

Evil? Psychopathology? Mental illness? Gambling disorder? Brain tumor? Can future massacres be prevented if we understand what caused the Las Vegas shooter to become our country's biggest mass murderer?

A psychiatrist recounts her harrowing experiences at both Bellevue Hospital and one of the most notorious correctional systems in the United States.

Neither time nor science has given pause to some attorneys who exploit the misunderstanding that surrounds the putative "criminogenic" effects of antidepressants.

Here: a review of the definition of sexual harassment, its prevalence among physicians and medical students, its potential impact on physicians and trainees, and guidance about its management.

The 1990s can be considered a high-water mark for support of the death penalty, as well as for imposing it. Where does that figure stand now? Take the quiz and learn more.

The authors discuss some potential complications arising from a constitutional ban on executing persons with mental illness.

Although a majority of states still permit capital punishment, this may not represent the true national mood: many of these states have not had an execution in more than 10 years.

After lounging on the doorstep of respectability for the past decade, assisted outpatient treatment is here to stay. But some still balk at the notion.

Strong evidence supports sound arguments on each side of 3 debates covered here-so get in there and fight nice.

Here: common misconceptions about assisted outpatient treatment--and how this tool can help selected mentally ill patients who are most difficult to treat.

The authors examine legal and ethical challenges for the psychiatrist when a defendant who is incompetent to stand trial declines to take prescribed psychotropic medication.

When clinicians work without ready access to a security team or environmental safety protocols, early recognition is crucial to preventing or avoiding those rare occasions when behavior problems escalate.

Which patients are at greatest risk for premature death following discharge?

The points summarized in this pocket guide-drawn from actual cases-recur repeatedly as problems for practitioners.

Strategies to reduce aggression in psychiatric treatment settings.

The authors review the association between depression and violence, and the role that anger and emotional dysregulation play.

There is no predictive tool that is likely to have validity for rare outcomes such as terrorist attacks. More here.

Here's compelling reason for judicious use of restraint and seclusion, and a review of various alternative approaches.

In this Letter to the Editor, practicing psychiatrist Richard Krugley, MD makes the case against the term "assisted suicide" when applied to terminally ill patients. Drs. Pies and Geppert respond.

Here's a review of a book about involuntary psychiatric commitment-- a major source of controversy when the public tries to understand who psychiatrists are and what we do.

When a psychiatrist evaluates a patient, there is much to be valued in trying to adopt the patient’s internal perspective of cultural mores and world views. But what are the limits to cultural sensitivity?

Here: a review of issues related to assessment of patients for suicide risk in the ED -- and an overview of emerging approaches and research that one day will lead to more reliable assessment and interventions based more on science than on art or luck.

The public has questioned the wisdom of a judge to release a psychiatric inpatient, but not just any patient. Enter our metaphoric haunted house at your own risk.

Medical, psychiatric, and/or developmental disorders can be falsified in a variety of ways. Know the warning signs often missed by clinicians.

Let us consider the case of a "bad" psychiatrist to serve as a warning of where we can go wrong.

What policy prescriptions, if any, would you make on a federal level for reducing gun violence in America? That question and more answered.

Individuals with serious mental illness are responsible for more than 7% of the nation’s homicides. What can be done to reduce this deadly phenomenon?

“Once a pedophile always a pedophile” is so 30 years ago. The author updates the realities about sex offenders and why psychiatrists should be more optimistic about their patients’ prognoses.