April 20th 2024
Here are highlights from the week in Psychiatric Times.
The Expanding Role of Fluid Biomarkers in the Diagnosis and Management of Patients With Alzheimer Disease
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Clinical Consultations™: Considerations for Customizing Care Plans for Patients with Parkinson Disease Psychosis
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Expert Illustrations & Commentaries™: Visualizing New Therapeutic Targets in Schizophrenia
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Advances In™ Schizophrenia: Expanding the Therapeutic Landscape
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Southern California Psychiatry Conference
September 13-14, 2024
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Updates on New and Emerging Therapies to Improve Outcomes for Patients With Major Depressive Disorder
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5th Annual International Congress on the Future of Neurology®
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2023 Annual Psychiatric Times™ World CME Conference
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Clinical Consultations™: Managing Depressive Episodes in Patients with Bipolar Disorder Type II
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Patient, Provider, and Caregiver Connection™: Exploring Unmet Needs In Postpartum Depression – Making the Case for Early Detection and Novel Treatments
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Medical Crossfire®: Understanding the Advances in Bipolar Disease Treatment—A Comprehensive Look at Treatment Selection Strategies
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'REEL’ Time Patient Counseling: The Diagnostic and Treatment Journey for Patients With Bipolar Disorder Type II – From Primary to Specialty Care
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More Than ‘Blue’ After Birth: Managing Diagnosis and Treatment of Post-Partum Depression
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Patient, Provider & Caregiver Connection™: Reducing the Burden of Parkinson Disease Psychosis with Personalized Management Plans
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Schizophrenia and Substance Abuse: Is There a Role for Atypical Antipsychotics?
January 1st 2007The prevalence of substance use disorders in patients with schizophrenia is greater than the rate observed in the general population, with a dramatic increase since the 1970s. Several theories exist to explain the high rate of comorbidity. The "self-medication" hypothesis suggests that persons may abuse substances to treat underlying psychotic symptoms or adverse effects of medications commonly used to treat schizophrenia.
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Implementation of a Diet Program for Inpatients With Schizophrenia
January 1st 2007Weight gain is a major concern in patients with schizophrenia, especially in those taking atypical antipsychotics. Although the exact mechanism of weight gain associated with atypical antipsychotics is unknown, we often hear patients complain about an increase in appetite and a decrease in satiety.
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Violence Against Mental Health Professionals: Fenton Death Highlights Concerns
January 1st 2007Once his colleagues began to recover from the shock, the death of Dr Wayne S. Fenton triggered a discussion in the professional and lay press about the risks of violence to mental health professionals posed by mentally ill patients. Fenton was found unconscious and bleeding in his office in Bethesda, Md, on Sunday, September 3, 2006. He had been beaten severely around the head and died at the scene.
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British Study: Older Antipsychotics Just as Good
December 1st 2006A new study comparing the benefits of second-generation antipsychotics (SGAs) with their older counterparts in patients with schizophrenia has yielded a surprising result. The study, funded by the UK National Health Service, found that the overall differences between first- and second-generation antipsychotics did not reach statistical significance.
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The Bipolar Handbook: Real-Life Questions With Up-to-Date Answers by Wes Burgess
December 1st 2006Bipolar disorder is often seen as a perplexing illness by patients and clinicians alike. In recent years, there has been a growing appreciation in psychiatric circles of the disorder's prevalence. This increased attention has filtered its way down to the general public, which, in turn, has produced sometimes sensationalistic media portrayals of manic depression, a number of speculative books about historic figures and noted artists who purportedly had the illness, and an array of self-help books marketed to individuals (and their families) afflicted with the disorder.
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Patients Underreporting Medical Conditions
December 1st 2006Patients with a serious mental illness (SMI), such as schizophrenia or bipolar disorder, may underreport co-occurring medical conditions. Dr Amy Kilbourne and colleagues performed a cross-sectional analysis of 35,857 patients from the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) National Registry to determine whether SMI patients were less likely to report a co-occurring medical condition. Results were published in the August 2006 issue of The Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease.
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Issues and Challenges in the Diagnosis and Treatment of Mentally Ill Hispanic Patients
December 1st 2006Despite the accepted validity of Hispanic as a distinct demographic and cultural category, we have only fragmentary evidence and scarce guidelines regarding the treatment of mentally ill Hispanic Americans. This article provides a brief review of the topics with the most clinical relevance to diagnosis and treatment of mental disorders in Hispanic Americans.
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Is the DSM the Bible of Psychiatry?
December 1st 2006A discussion of the intellectual, social, and historical similarities and differences between sacred texts and the DSM would require a full-length book, but we will concentrate here on 5 main aspects: controversy, communication, interpretation, change, and power.
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Effects of Culture on Recovery From Transient Psychosis
December 1st 2006Analyzing data gathered in a 10-nation study of psychoses by the World Health Organization (WHO), Susser and Wanderling1 found that the incidence of nonaffective psychoses with acute onset and full recovery was about 10 times higher in premodern cultures than in modern cultures. Transient psychoses with full recovery were comparatively rare in modern cultures. Such a dramatic difference begs for explanation.
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Culture and Urban Mental Health
December 1st 2006Mostly because of increased speed and decreased costs of communication and transportation, cities are growing increasingly diverse in their population. Consequently, cultural factors have taken center stage in the understanding of urban mental health. This article will focus on the main approaches to urban mental health and briefly summarize the 3 lines of research in this area. It will then discuss the main themes of a vast body of literature on the cultural aspects of urban mental health.
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Genetic Counseling in Psychiatry: Preparing for Anticipated Demand
December 1st 2006In a recent article on genetic counseling in psychiatry, Christine Finn, MD, and Jordan W. Smoller, MD, ScD, noted that family and twin studies have documented the familiality and heritability of schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, major depression, anxiety disorders, autism, attention-deficit/hyper- activity disorder (ADHD), and Tourette syndrome, among others, and that molecular genetic studies have begun to identify possible susceptibility loci for several of these disorders, most notably schizophrenia.
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New Compounds, Novel Strategies Reported at NCDEU
November 1st 2006Investigational drugs and novel applications of established agents for psychiatric illness were described in a number of reports at the 46th annual NIMH-sponsored New Clinical Drug Evaluation Unit (NCDEU) meeting in Boca Raton, Fla, June 12-15, 2006.
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Initial studies-such as the stepped collaborative care intervention, Texas Medication Algorithm Project (TMAP), and German Algorithm Project (GAP) phase 2-predominantly investigated whether following an expert opinion–based clinical algorithm (irrespective of the content of the algorithm) led to a better outcome than treatment as usual did
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Treatment-Resistant Anxiety Disorders: Neurotrophic Perspectives
October 31st 2006Anxiety disorders are the most prevalent psychiatric disorders in the United States. Although effective treatments are available, such as the SSRIs and cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT), it is estimated that in about 40% of patients, anxiety disorders are partially or completely resistant to first-line treatment.
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Treatment Resistance in Schizophrenia: The Role of Alternative Therapies
October 30th 2006In 1931, Gananath Sen and Kartick Chandra Bose reported on the use of an alkaloid extract from the Rauwolfia serpentina plant in the treatment of hypertension and "insanity with violent maniacal symptoms." They noted that dosages "of 20 to 30 grains of the powder twice daily produce not only a hypnotic effect but also a reduction of blood pressure and violent symptoms
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Hundreds of uniquely adapted venomous marine cone snail species inhabit the coral reefs of the Indian and Pacific oceans. Researchers posit that each may be a virtual neurologic pharmacopoeia with potential value for the treatment of everything from diabetic neuropathy to schizophrenia. The venoms, known as conotoxins, selectively inhibit a wide range of ion channels involved in neuromuscular signaling.
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Better Tools Needed to Measure Treatment Outcome
October 1st 2006The need for better tools, as well as better use of existing tools, to measure treatment response in clinical trials was a principle focus of the 46th annual NIMH-sponsored NCDEU (New Clinical Drug Evaluation Unit) meeting, held June 12-15 in Boca Raton, Fla. Improved clinical research techniques are needed to better separate treatment effect from placebo response, to distinguish between active comparators, and to facilitate development of novel treatments, according to several presenters at the conference.
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IOM Report Takes on Medication Errors . . . Again
October 1st 2006In its latest report on medication errors, a committee assembled by the Institute of Medicine (IOM) included some sidebars on psychiatric drugs. The report, issued in July, said that there is too little data on misadministration of psychiatric drugs and that clinical trials with psychiatric drugs have been small and incapable of providing pragmatic, comparative information.
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Ampakines May Reverse Age-Related Memory Loss
September 1st 2006Ampakines, agents that have been shown to enhance memory, appear to trigger endogenous brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), a natural mechanism in the brain that could restore neuronal viability and synaptic plasticity through increased trophic support.
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Preventing Rehospitalization in Schizophrenia
September 1st 2006Interventions addressing symptom education, service continuity, and daily structure are the most effective in avoiding inpatient stays in patients with schizophrenia who have had multiple hospitalizations, a study in the June issue of The Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease reported.
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