In This Issue of Psychiatric Times: Vol 37, No 2

A Lifetime of Learning. Editor in Chief John J. Miller, MD shares his insights on the upcoming Psychiatric Times World CME Conference in October.

Chairman and Founder, MJH Life Sciences, Psychiatric Times' parent company, Mike Hennessy Sr, introduces the February issue with The Words We Use.

In Recognizing and Addressing Domestic Violence: Issues for Psychiatrists, Obianuju O. Berry, MD, MPH, Elizabeth Fitelson, MD, and Catherine Monk, PhD write about the cultural shift in intimate partner violence. It is no longer defined as a family affair, but one that has lasting effects on the individual, the family, and the community. More in this free CME.

In The Neuroprotective Effects of Lithium, by David N. Osser, MD, Do you need help persuading patients to try lithium? A major but often underemphasized benefit of lithium is its unique neuroprotective effects. Bipolar disorder seems to be a condition characterized by gradual progressive shrinkage in some areas of cortical gray matter as well as some tracks of white matter. These losses are associated with increased neurocognitive impairment. However, in patients who have been treated with long-term lithium, there is better preservation of white matter structural integrity.

My Decade of Psychiatric Times-and Yours, by H. Steven Moffic, MD. We are privileged to hear and are trusted with our patients' darkest secrets. Our availability for whatever is needed that is not addressed in the rest of medicine makes us invaluable to society, and this will undoubtedly be the case in the 2020s.

A Rock and a Hard Place. Eduardo Constantino, MD, presents a case about the costs, risks, and considerations involved in treating addiction. In Psychiatric Malpractice Grand Rounds: Addiction Psychiatry, James L. Knoll IV, MD analyzes the ethical and legal duties of psychiatrists treating substance use disorders.

Bipolar Disorder: Practice-Changing Trials from 2019. The treatment of bipolar disorder changed in ways big and small in 2019. More in this summary by Chris Aiken, MD

The Arms of Ivy Welcome Her, by George Mecouch, DO. With the help of psychotherapy, something from the deep unconscious helped cure her depression, forge her character, and guide her to a sense of peace. Plus, The Show Must Go On. Richard M. Berlin, MD: A phone rings on stage like a flashback and we return to our fantasy that characters can die and revive, that the show must go on . . .

The Non-Binary Story and the Rescue of Self: Healing Stories of the Third Kind, by Lawrence H. Climo, MD. A hypothetical first conversation with a non-binary person . . . One of us would be feeling nervous and the other certain-a phenomenon not unfamiliar to a psychiatrist, only here the roles would be reversed.

Cruel, Immoral Behavior Is Not Mental Illness, by James L. Knoll IV, MD, and Ronald W. Pies, MD. How can a human being commit such acts without being under the influence of some powerful “alien” force? How can they not be "mentally ill"? Here's how.