July 17th 2025
Social media use among older adults shows potential benefits for reducing loneliness and improving psychosocial well-being, though results vary across studies.
Social Media Use: A Closer Look at the Real Meaning of Friends
September 3rd 2014People feel free to post comments on social media sites that they would never dare say to someone’s face. The cure, if only a partial one, is to get out of social media and to start living a real life. What is your opinion on this issue?
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The Brave New World of Behavioral Therapies for Alcohol Use Disorders
June 30th 2014In addition to the approval of novel medications for alcohol use disorders, the past several years have been marked by an emphasis on development, standardization, and dissemination of new behavioral therapies, including computer-based interventions.
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Update on Electronic Health Records and Health Care Technology
June 20th 2014How to manage EHRs is at the top of the list of physician concerns, according to past AMA President Jeremy Lazarus, MD. The first psychiatrist to lead the AMA in over 70 years, Dr Lazarus addressed the Assembly at the American Psychiatric Association Annual Meeting in New York in May.
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Telepsychiatry: First Week in the Trenches
January 22nd 2014The transition to telepsychiatry is great, but the benefits, many. In this humorous piece, it becomes clear to this clinician that telepsychiatry can be a viable, valuable, and timely addition to the psychiatric profession, despite minor mishaps in the first week.
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Rural Telepsychiatry: The Future Is Bright
November 15th 2013Various populations of patients can benefit from telepsychiatry. The goal is not to replace local mental health resources but to enhance existing capabilities. This article articulates successful interventions as well as topics to consider when developing a telepsychiatry service.
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The Challenges and Rewards of Rural Psychiatry
August 15th 2013Despite its many challenges, rural psychiatry can be particularly rewarding because it allows an opportunity to provide much-needed care and the ability to be at the forefront of helping to close gaps in health care disparities.The privilege of being a true community resource and the ability to improve overall community mental health give meaningful purpose to the work of a rural psychiatrist.
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A Physician's Guide to Using Digital Technology
March 8th 2013Digital technology provides many benefits to clinical practice but only if you know how to avoid the associated pitfalls. This slideshow provides easily accessible information for best practices for using e-mail, text messaging, search engines, blogs, etc.
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Social Media Tools for Mental Health Professionals (Part 1)
November 19th 2012Psychiatrists and other mental health professionals are increasingly turning to social media to help build, manage, market, and diversify their practices. But how to use social media still maintaining patient privacy and confidentiality? Details here.
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A Growing Crisis in Mental Health Among the Nation’s Elderly?
May 24th 2011A report of dropoffs of elderly individuals at hospitals, elderly persons being reported for socially inappropriate behavior, and an increase in 911 calls concerning elderly relatives with dementia attacking family members and caregivers.
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Medicare Change to “Privileging by Proxy” Could Hurt Psychiatrists Providing Telepsychiatry
September 1st 2010The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) wants rural hospitals and critical access hospitals (CAHs) to take certain new steps to ensure that the private-office psychiatrists they connect to in big cities for telemedicine services are qualified for that purpose.
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Living the Questions: Cases in Psychiatric Ethics
November 3rd 2009Information 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.
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Telemedicine-the use of electronic technologies to deliver medical care at a distance-continues to gain popularity and widespread use in all medical specialties, including psychiatry. However, many residents enter their training without any clinical experience in telemedicine in general or its applications in psychiatry.
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Death of Psychiatrist and Other Soldiers Triggers Inquiry Into Military’s Mental Health Care
July 6th 2009Alarmed by the rising suicide rate among soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan and “wanting to help,” Matthew “Matt” Houseal, MD, a psychiatrist with the Texas Panhandle Mental Health Mental Retardation Center (TPMHMR), reenlisted as an Army Reservist and volunteered to serve in Iraq.
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Child and Adolescent Psychiatry: The Next 10 Years
May 2nd 2008Psychiatry is changing so rapidly that it seems impossible to predict 1 year ahead, let alone 10 years. In 1967, when my psychiatry training ended, the community psychiatry movement had just begun, DSM-II was in the works, and the biological revolution was still around the corner.
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Recognizing and Treating Depression in Asian Americans
December 1st 2006Compared with other ethnic groups, Asian Americans underuse mental health services, resulting in delayed treatment and higher attrition rates. A report by the surgeon general states that the underutilization is because of the shortage of bilingual services, the low percentage of health care insurance coverage, and the Asian American tradition of using mental health treatment only as a last resort.
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