Neuropsychiatry

Of the screening tools available to help identify early symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease, which is best?

Repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) may be an effective therapy for treatment-resistant bipolar depression, according to the results of a recent pilot study led by Guohua Xia, MD, PhD, assistant clinical professor of psychiatry at the University of California, Davis.

Information transmission, such as blogs, RSS feeds, and podcasts, have emerged as common forms of communication. The exponential growth of medical knowledge and the increasingly rapid pace of scientific discovery have made it nearly impossible for the print medium to keep abreast of new developments.

The editors of Psychiatric Times interview Vladimir Maletic, MD, PA, clinical professor of neuropsychiatry and behavioral science at the University of South Carolina School of Medicine, Columbia; founding member of the Integrative Neurobiology Educational Alliance; and member of the U.S. Psychiatric and Mental Health Congress 2009 advisory board.

Transcranial magnetic stimulation produced improvements in key areas of cognition and in short-term verbal memory in patients with major depressive disorder, and no adverse cognitive effects were shown. The results of this research were presented by Mark Demitrack, MD, vice president and chief medical officer of Neuronetics, Inc, and colleagues at the annual meeting of the American Psychiatric Association in May.

Whether you credit the idea to Niels Bohr or Yogi Berra, it is true that predictions are very difficult to make, especially about the future. It is a daunting task, yet obviously an intriguing one, to try to imagine what our field will be like in 10 years or more.

From this book’s title, iBrain, I expected to learn about the positive impact of the computer world on the ever-evolving brain. I was in for a surprise. iBrain is a nuanced account of brain anatomy and function, brain plasticity, the impact-good and bad-of the Internet and Web access on the brain, and how to have a healthy brain and life in the face of our technological world. The book is written by psychiatrist-neuroscientist Gary Small, MD, director of the Memory and Aging Research Center at UCLA, and his wife, Gigi Vorgan, a film and television actor and writer. Small and Vorgan have a linear, easy-to-understand writing style that includes entertaining and educational case vignettes.

Mr A is a 73-year-old resident of a nursing home, where the irate aides describe him as “a liar and a troublemaker.” Mr A’s “stories” were regarded by the staff as deliberate mischief on his part.

Several classes of hypnotic medication are available: the older barbiturates and their derivatives; benzodiazepines; chemically distinct “z-compounds”; antihistamines and antihistaminic antidepressants; and melatoninergic compounds. The use of hypnotic medications continues at a high rate. However, some switching to the shorter-acting benzodiazepines has occurred. The z-compounds-eszopiclone, zolpidem, and zaleplon-have become popular; they seem to have fewer residual effects than the benzodiazepines. Even so, care is needed in prescribing such hypnotics for the elderly.

Lecturing around the country has left us with the powerful impression that both psychiatrists and primary care physicians are hungry for new ways to think about and treat depression and the myriad symptoms and syndromes with which it is associated-including attention deficit disorder, insomnia, chronic pain conditions, substance abuse, and various states of disabling anxiety. Primary care physicians also seem especially excited to learn that depression is not just a psychiatric illness but a behavioral manifestation of underlying pathophysiological processes that promote most of the other conditions they struggle to treat-including cardiovascular disease, diabetes, cancer, and dementia.1,2

Many people assume that it is the emotional and psychotic symptoms that make it difficult for a person with schizophrenia to function in everyday life. In fact, research indicates that cognitive impairment is a major reason why functional outcome is so poor.1

Eli Lilly and Company pleaded guilty on January 30 to one misdemeanor violation of misbranding Zyprexa (olanzapine) by promoting it for dementia. However, a question raised by bloggers and others remains: did the drug benefit the elderly despite the fact it was not approved by the FDA for such purposes?

While ECT remains a remarkably safe and effective treatment for severe depression, its broad application has been hampered by concerns-both perceived and real-about its cognitive effects.5 Worries about memory loss make some patients reluctant to undergo this therapy and some practitioners reluctant to refer patients for it. Within the field of ECT itself, there has been tension for some years between the wish to maximize (the already excellent) antidepressant and antipsychotic efficacy of ECT and the competing wish to minimize any effects on memory.

Because numerous diseases- infectious, endocrinological, metabolic, and neurological, as well as connective-tissue disease-can induce psychiatric and/or behavioral symptoms, clinicians need to distinguish these neuropsychiatric masquerades from primary psychiatric disorders, warned José Maldonado, MD, the director of Stanford University’s Psychosomatic Medicine Service.

A new study is raising important questions about the brain’s ability to remain active and regenerate in later life and whether Web searching can stimulate brain activity in middle-aged and older adults.

The FDA has cleared the first transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) device (Neuro-Star) for the treatment of major depressive disorder in adults who show no improvement after an adequate trial of a single antidepressant.

Our returning military veterans remind us dramatically of the importance to consider traumatic brain injury (TBI) as a potential comorbid illness in cases of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The common causes of comorbid TBI and PTSD are assault and battery to the head, head trauma (personal or work-related injuries), civilian or military explosions, inflicted head trauma in children, motor vehicle accidents, and suicide attempts by jumping. Prevalence figures for comorbid TBI and PTSD historically have been lacking

In the new century, the dementias will probably become 1 of the 2 or 3 dominant behavioral health problems in the United States. This article provides an overview of the major clinical features of these cognitive loss syndromes and emphasizes the perspective of the practicing psychiatrist.

Neuroimaging is often used in clinical psychiatry to rule out medical and neurological conditions that can mimic psychiatric disease rather than for the diagnosis of specific psychiatric disorders.

Unipolar major depressive disorder is a debilitating condition with a lifetime prevalence of 17%. Recent epidemiological evidence indicates that MDD is the fourth leading cause of disease burden and the leading cause of disability-adjusted life years.

Universal prevention has been a focus of psychiatric research for the past 4 decades. Using a public health approach, research has shown that mitigating major risk factors, such as poverty and early life stress, and promoting protective factors can improve behavioral outcomes.

Depression complicates medical illnesses and their management, and it increases health care use, disability, and mortality. This article focuses on the recent research data on diagnosis, etiopathogenesis, treatment, and prevention in unipolar, bipolar, psychotic, and subsyndromal depression.

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is the major cause of death and disability among young adults. In spite of preventive measures, the incidence of a TBI associated with motor vehicle accidents, falls, assault, and high-contact sports continues to be alarmingly high and constitutes a major public health concern. In addition, the recent military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan have resulted in a large number of persons with blast injuries and brain trauma. Taking into account that cognitive and behavioral changes have a decisive influence in the recovery and community reintegration of patients with a TBI, there is a renewed interest in developing systematic studies of the frequency, mechanism, and treatment of the psychopathological alterations observed among these patients.

The mind-brain dichotomy has been on a roller-coaster ride over the past few hundred years. Clinically astute European neuropsychiatrists in the 18th and 19th centuries described various neuropsychiatric disorders based on observations of their patients.

Despite an abundance of studies linking both traumatic experiences and anxiety disorders with eating disorders, relatively little has been reported on the prevalence of associated posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) or partial PTSD in patients with eating disorders.