May 7th 2025
Explore the ethical complexities of euthanasia and assisted suicide through a philosophical lens.
Expert Perspectives in the Recognition and Management of Postpartum Depression
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Southern California Psychiatry Conference
July 11-12, 2025
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SimulatED™: Diagnosing and Treating Alzheimer’s Disease in the Modern Era
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Expert Illustrations & Commentaries™: New Targets for Treatment in Cognitive Impairment in Schizophrenia – The Role of NMDA Receptors and Co-agonists
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BURST CME™ Part I: Understanding the Impact of Huntington’s Disease
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Burst CME™ Part II: The Evolving Treatment Landscape for Huntington Disease
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Clinical ShowCase: Developing a Personalized Treatment Plan for a Patient with Huntington’s Disease Associated Chorea
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Community Practice Connections™: Optimizing the Management of Tardive Dyskinesia—Addressing the Complexity of Care With Targeted Treatment
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PER Psych Summit: Integrating Shared Decision-Making Into Management Plans for Patients With Schizophrenia
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Southern Florida Psychiatry Conference
November 21-22, 2025
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Managing Negative Symptoms of Schizophrenia: Can Prescription Digital Therapeutics Make an Impact?
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Optimizing Care for Patients With Tardive Dyskinesia
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Stabilize and Thrive: Prioritizing Patient Success Through Novel Therapeutic Management in Schizophrenia
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New Tests May Predict Suicide Risk
August 5th 2010Two recent studies by Harvard psychologists deliver promising data from 2 tests that may help clinicians predict suicidal behavior. The markers in these new tests involve a patient’s attention to suicide-related stimuli and the measure of association with death or suicide.
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No Condolence Letter For Families of Soldiers Who Commit Suicide
January 20th 2010When a soldier is killed while in the military service the President writes a condolence letter to the family. However, if a soldier is psychologically injured and then commits suicide, there is no Presidential letter of condolence.
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Suicide Risk and Lethality of Attempts Linked to Low Levels of MHPG
December 2nd 2009Low levels of 3-methoxy-4-hydroxyphenylglycol (MHPG) in patients with major depressive disorder (MDD) or bipolar depression were shown to be associated with increased risk of suicide attempts. Hanga Galfalvy, PhD, assistant professor of clinical neurobiology at Columbia University and the New York State Psychiatric Institute, New York, and her colleagues found that patients with the lowest levels of MHPG at baseline were more likely to commit highly lethal suicidal acts.
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In Her Wake: A Child Psychiatrist Explores the Mystery of Her Mother’s Suicide
December 1st 2009Whether treated or untreated, if the outcome of mental illness is suicide, it is a devastating end to a life and it wreaks havoc on family members left behind. Child psychiatrist Nancy Rappaport of Cambridge, Mass, has written a moving memoir of her mother’s suicide that took place during an acrimonious custody battle. Rappaport, at age 4 years, was the youngest of 6 children left behind. She shows great courage as she risks discovering painful information and creating potential ruptures with her father and siblings, some of whom disagree with her decision to write the book.
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Strategies to Avoid a Malpractice Suit When a Patient Commits Suicide
November 4th 2009A few simple steps can enhance your assessment of a patient’s suicide risk-and thereby reduce your own risk for liability if the patient does commit suicide. Phillip J. Resnick, MD, professor of psychiatry and director of forensic psychiatry at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, described those measures in a lecture today at the US Psychiatric Congress in Las Vegas.
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FDA Dictates Suicide Ideation Warning for Antiepileptics Used for Bipolar Disorder
February 1st 2009The FDA is forcing manufacturers of all antiepileptic drugs to include new warnings of possible suicide ideation in the prescribing information and also to prepare a new Medication Guide to be distributed by pharmacies to consumers. In addition, the companies will have to produce a Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategy for each drug, which the FDA only requires for drugs with possible adverse effects it considers especially dangerous.
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Enhancing Suicide Risk Assessment Through Evidence-Based Psychiatry
January 2nd 2009Suicide risk assessment is a core competency that all psychiatrists must have.1 A competent suicide assessment identifies modifiable and treatable protective factors that inform patient treatment and safety management.2 Psychiatrists, unlike other medical specialists, do not often experience patient deaths, except by suicide. Patient suicide is an occupational hazard. A clinical axiom holds that there are 2 kinds of psychiatrists: those who have had patients commit suicide-and those who will.
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SSRIs, Adolescent Suicide, and the Black Box: Lingering Questions
October 2nd 2008In “SSRI Prescribing Rates and Adolescent Suicide: Is the Black Box Hurting or Helping?” (Psychiatric Times, October 2007, page 33) Gibbons and associates primarily use data from their American Journal of Psychiatry article that appeared in September 2007, in a not very veiled attempt to influence doctors and the FDA to roll back the “black-box” warning on the prescription of SSRIs for adolescents.
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Would a Suicide Barrier on the Golden Gate Bridge Save Lives?
September 2nd 2008The Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco has the regrettable distinction of being the number one spot for suicide in the world. There have been more than 1300 known suicides from the bridge, and in 2007 at least 35 people committed suicide by jumping off the Golden Gate Bridge, more than in any other year.
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Can Atypical Antipsychotics Reduce Suicide Risk in Patients With Schizophrenia?
April 15th 2008Suicide is a devastating, tragically frequent outcome for persons with varying psychiatric conditions, including schizophrenia. An estimated 5% to 10% of persons with schizophrenia commit suicide and 20% to 50% attempt suicide during their lifetime.1,2 Patients with schizophrenia have more than an 8-fold increased risk of completing suicide (based on the standardized mortality ratio) than the general population.3
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Is It a "True" Emergency? Suicidal Patients' Access to Their Psychiatrists
February 1st 2008When a suicidal patient in crisis calls the psychiatrist and hears the recorded message, "If you have a 'true' emergency, go to your nearest emergency room or call 911," the patient's risk of suicide may increase.
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Antidepressants Not Linked to Adult Suicide
December 1st 2007Some studies have linked antidepressants to suicide ideation in children and adolescents, but could adult suicides be linked to antidepressant use? Andrew C. Leon and associates reviewed the medical examiner reports of 1419 adults who completed suicide from 2001 to 2004 in New York City and determined that there does not appear to be a link between the two.
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SSRI Prescribing Rates and Adolescent Suicide: Is the Black Box Hurting or Helping?
October 1st 2007Suicide is the third leading cause of death in younger (10- to 14-year-old) adolescents in the United States and the leading cause of death in this age group in other countries, including China, Sweden, Ireland, Australia, and New Zealand.
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Suicide in Depression: Balancing Risk Factors, Identifying Vulnerable Patients
August 1st 2007This May, the FDA called for a black box warning on antidepressants to indicate that patients aged 18 to 24 years are at heightened risk for treatment-emergent suicidality. But a member of the FDA advisory committee that recommended that warning has issued his own warning, saying that the "real killer in this story is untreated depression and the possible risk from antidepressant treatment is dwarfed by that from the disease."
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No-Suicide Contracts as a Suicide Prevention Strategy
July 1st 2007The role of no-suicide contracts is but a small tactical piece of the larger strategic approach to the assessment and prevention of suicide. Its many obvious limitations-to some degree in assessment, but primarily in suicide prevention-should have driven serious discussion of no-suicide contracts out of consideration as a practical measure in clinical practice and a legal talking point in the courtroom.
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How to Write a Suicide Note: Practical Tips for Documenting the Evaluation of a Suicidal Patient
May 1st 2007Proper suicide assessment is probably the most important part of a clinician's job; appropriately, heavy emphasis is placed on this in our education. Unfortunately, psychiatrists receive comparatively little practical guidance in documenting the history and physical examination (H&P) of a suicidal patient.
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Suicide Attempts and Completions in Patients With Bipolar Disorder
May 1st 2007According to the CDC, in 2004, suicide was the 11th leading cause of death across all age groups and the 10th leading cause of death for persons aged 14 to 64 years; 32,439 people in the United States took their own lives. Women attempt suicide about 3 times more often than men, although men are 4 times as likely to complete suicide. Anderson and Smith3 reported that suicide was the eighth leading cause of death among men in 2001. Of the 24,672 completed suicides among men, 60% involved the use of a firearm (the use of a firearm was the means of suicide in 55% of all cases).
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What is the best approach for management of depression in a pregnant woman after a suicide attempt?
March 1st 2007Although suicidal ideation occurs in roughly 5% to 14% of pregnancies,1 suicide attempts are relatively rare (0.04%) and are associated with substance abuse and poor pregnancy outcome.2 After a suicide attempt, the clinician must first consider the possibility of recurrence of self-destructive behavior by assessing the woman's motivation, her attitude toward the pregnancy, and the severity of her depressive symptoms.
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