August 11th 2025
NRx Pharmaceuticals secures FDA Fast Track designation for NRX-100, a preservation-free formulation of intravenous ketamine for suicidal ideation in depression.
Tales from the New Asylum: The Valediction
April 12th 2011Whenever a suicide happens in the New Asylums, a palpable, muted dread descends over the institution. It stays there in full force for weeks and months afterwards, sometimes longer. After that, it is added as another sedimentary layer to the strata and culture of the particular institution. Before things get too deeply buried, it is important to excavate.
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Mixed States in Their Manifold Forms: Part 1
March 30th 2011Mixed states constitute a wondrously variegated universe of psychopathology. These states are characterized by the intrusion of features characteristic of depression into states of hypomania or mania and the converse. Mixed states assume a myriad of forms that as a family may be among the most commonly encountered states of affective illness.
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Psychotherapy is Alive and Talking in Psychiatry
March 12th 2011The title of Gardiner Harris’s front-page story in the March 6 New York Times was blunt: “Talk Doesn’t Pay, So Psychiatry Turns Instead to Drug Therapy.” For those of us who see our profession as a humanistic calling, this piece is likely to provoke a mixture of sadness and anger.
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Solving The Problem Of Questionable Diagnoses Grandfathered Into DSM
February 11th 2011Charles Moser, PhD, MD, has forwarded an interesting suggestion to solve the problem of weak diagnoses that have received a free ride through previous revisions of DSM. His is a middle way intended to steer between the contrasting risks of continuing questionable diagnoses and the risks of eliminating them.
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Psychiatric Assessment and Treatment in Preschool Children
February 10th 2011Expansion of age-appropriate developmental psycho-therapeutic services must become a top public health priority to make these treatments more widely available to young children and to capture the potential greater benefit of the earliest possible intervention for mental disorders.
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Electroconvulsive Therapy: The Second Most Controversial Medical Procedure
February 9th 2011ECT, like abortion, is surrounded by controversy and strong opinions on both sides. Fortunately, for those of us who practice ECT, the discussion is not quite as heated nor the risks as high as for our colleagues in ob-gyn.
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Electroconvulsant Therapy Under Review-Once Again
January 25th 2011FDA regulators are deciding whether to downgrade the risk classification of ECT from high to medium risk. In 1990, FDA regulators proposed declaring ECT devices safe for major depression but because of an uproar by ECT opponents, a final decision was never made.
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DSM5 Task Force: Do Not Go to the Mass Media-Do Your Homework
December 1st 2010As I was driving to work on February 10, 2010, I listened to the National Public Radio host Melissa Block talking about how children labeled “bipolar” may get a new diagnosis. I was shocked that the chair of one of the DSM5 work groups, David Shaffer, MD, would discuss a controversial diagnostic topic with the media.
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Science Versus Pragmatism in the DSM: Finding A Middle Ground
November 18th 2010The DSM does and must involve both science and pragmatism. It must use the science that is available, but it must also make countless judgment calls that are not grounded in solid empirical evidence-and surely it makes sense to consider practical consequences in doing the latter.
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Biological Consequences and Transgenerational Impact of Violence and Abuse
November 17th 2010Every year, more than 1 million children are exposed to sexual or physical abuse or neglect in the US. The research summarized here clearly demonstrates that exposure to stress before adulthood can result in persistent effects on both mental and physical health.
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