Schizophrenia/Psychosis

In a recent Psychiatric Times blog, Allen Frances engaged a debate with Andrew Hinderliter over the question of change in the diagnostic categories of DSM-5.

On January 24, Dr Ronald Pies posted a thoughtful piece titled “Who Can Forgive Jared Loughner?” which advocates the importance of relinquishing hatred in cases like the ones in Tucson and transforming “our revulsion and rage into something higher and nobler.”

Reflecting on my internship year evokes anxious feelings, despite the fact that I am separated from it by time, distance, and hundreds of positive experiences.

Major mood disorders have been associated with increased suicidal behavior. This is especially true in patients with a mixed, manic-depressive, or dysphoric-agitated state.

Are you familiar with Google Ngrams? If not, you may find the graphs it produces to be a very visual and interesting way to look back at terms used in psychiatry.

NIMH is shifting away from current-generation treatments and toward preclinical drug development and early-phase clinical pharmacology, according to the institute’s director and a workgroup co-chair.

ECT, 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.

Is violent behavior a proxy indicator for the relationship between severity of substance abuse and suicide risk? What has the strongest influence in promoting doubt about a delusion in a patient with schizophrenia? These questions and more.

I would like to start off this blog with two stories that happened many years ago.

The recent mass murders in Arizona are the latest in our country's epidemic of horrible, hate inspired crimes. The 24/7 media punditry and political spinning has been disappointingly off point in a way suggesting that once again we will learn nothing from our mistakes and that such tragedies will continue to recur with distressing frequency.

Recently, NARSAD presented its achievement awards for 2010-awards given to physicians and scientists doing cutting-edge work to better understand the mechanisms and causes of mental illness.

December 17, 2010 was a special day in the history of psychiatric diagnosis. Bob Spitzer retired after a remarkable 52 year career.

Psychiatrists helping nonpsychiatrists refer their patients has a long but not always illustrious history.

Dr David Osser has chosen as one of the Top Papers of the Year a meta-analysis on second generation antipsychotics and the effects of these agents on patients with schizophrenia.

In a question-and-answer discussion with Dr Phillip Resnick, clinicians gained valuable insights into the legalities of psychiatry and how best to treat patients and protect the public (and themselves).

As 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.

The 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.

In this autobiographic work, Darryl Cunningham explains mental illness in a succinct and novel way. It is already proving to be of use to both health professionals and mental health service clients. Published in the UK this year, its US release is scheduled for February 2011.

I do not believe that a nation as rich as ours (albeit with most wealth concentrated among the upper income levels) can shirk its moral responsibilities in the matter of providing basic health care for all its citizens.

There is evidence that the combination of medication and psychotherapy improves outcomes for many psychiatric illnesses. Among the several forms of psychotherapy that might be considered, cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) is the most extensively studied.

Our study suggests that most delusional patients, even those with high positive symptom scores, may have at least 1 RFD that precedes a clinical intervention specifically directed toward encouraging doubt. These preexisting “islands of doubt” may offer a useful foothold to begin the CBT process.

It is well known that black people, compared to white people, are much more likely to be diagnosed as suffering from ‘schizophrenia’ if they are seen at psychiatric units in the UK or USA. .

Autism is demanding increased attention by professional and lay audiences; prevalence seems to be increasing. There are differing opinions about whether the increase is due to greater recognition and reporting, diagnostic expansion and substitution, or increasing acceptability.

Designers of descriptive diagnostic criteria for mental disorders face some of the same problems as fishermen. Fishermen, like nosologists, want to capture not just any fish but a particular kind. Fishermen deal with this problem in various ways.

Of the more than 250 million prescriptions written for psychiatric drugs in 2009 in this country, Xanax is the by far most popular. Nearly 50 million prescriptions were written for this benzodiazepine or its generic form last year.