psychiatry

This is an archived post from September, 2005, posted here and now because I am away on vacation. As I go about my days, I get the impression that there is a lot of confusion out there about the treatment of opiate abuse and dependence. Wes Clark (not that Wes Clark, the other one) has written an article to help us understand this nettlesome issue. First, I summarize some point from his article, and a few others, then add a few bits of my own. Dr. Clark provides us with some historical background in his article, rev="review" href="http://content.nejm.org/cgi/content/full/349/10/928">…
This post on Black Triangle reminds me that it is a good idea to spread this warning, at this time of year. He notes several medications that increase the risk of heatstroke, or otherwise pose risks in heat and bright sun. Many of these are psychiatric medications. href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antipsychotic" rel="tag">Antipsychotic medications, in particular, can increase risk of heatstroke. Some make the skin more susceptible to sunburn. href="http://www.nami.org/Template.cfm?Section=About_Medications&Template=/TaggedPage/TaggedPageDisplay.cfm&TPLID=51&ContentID=…
Being on vacation over the following two weeks, I've scheduled publication of some old posts. The formatting might be a little funny, but I can't really check that ahead of time. The preview function in MT is not perfect. This one is from June, 2004.... From the newsletter, Psychiatric Times, here is a summary of recent findings from analysis of data pertaining to the association between antidepressant use and the incidence of suicide.  I wrote a flurry of articles on this subject back in April.  (previous title="Corpus Callosum">CC posts: href="http://corpus-callosum.blogspot.com/…
This week's Ask-a-ScienceBlogger question is: If you could have practiced science in any time and any place throughout history, which would it be, and why?... Hmmm.  I am not going to answer that question, exactly.  Instead, I will rephrase it, and answer the question that I would like to be asked. If you could practice science in any time and place in history, for  while, then come back to the present day, where are when would you pick? I would like to have been around during the turn of the last two centuries, in central Europe, as an associate of title="Wikipedia link" href="Sigmund…
This subject is not really news anymore, but I am writing about it to call attention to a review article, href="http://www.nature.com/npp/journal/v31/n7/abs/1301082a.html">VNS Therapy in Treatment-Resistant Depression: Clinical Evidence and Putative Neurobiological Mechanisms.  In this post, I provide a little overview of VNS therapy, comment on some other sources of information, and say a little bit about where I would like the research to go next. VNS Therapy in Treatment-Resistant Depression: Clinical Evidence and Putative Neurobiological Mechanisms Charles B Nemeroff*,1,2,…
I got an email that I almost deleted without reading, thinking for a moment that it would be spam. It turned out not to be. Since the author appears to be well-intentioned, I'll go ahead and post it here. He mentions some on-line resources regarding the diagnosis and treatment of adult ADHD. Based upon the title of the email, I thought it was going to be one of those pitches for Internet drug sales. It is not. Instead, it promotes a site put up by an independent ADHD coach. Presumably, the main purpose is to promote his business. I have no particujlar objection to that. I have no…
The Washington Post has a mildly interesting href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/06/22/AR2006062201952.html">article about Douglas M. Duncan, who just dropped out of the gubernatorial race in Maryland. Reportedly, he was diagnosed as having depression earlier in the week, then decided to withdraw. "It's time for me to focus on my health" The decision was taken as an opportunity to discuss the problem posed by the illness, the stigma, and the difficulties posed by the decision to go public with the disclosure.   "There is an enormous amount of stress to…
Moose, Isle Royale National Park National Park Service Photo, presumed to be in public domain Sometimes I am talking to people about how they feel about taking psychiatric medication.  Commonly, they say something like this: "I would rather be able to do it myself," or, "I don't like being dependent on something." Indeed, in American culture (and many others, presumably) independence is highly valued.  It is romanticized.  It is considered to be one of the nobler of virtues.  It is something to boast about.   "I don't need anyone" is a common refrain among the boastful.   Isle Royale…
What Ever Happened to Psychotherapy? Or rather, what is happening to psychotherapy? Here, I am picking up on a  comment thread at Mad Melancholic Feminista, under href="http://melancholicfeminista.blogspot.com/2006/06/prozac-doesnt-get-anorexics-eating.html">the post that Aspazia did about href="http://scienceblogs.com/corpuscallosum/2006/06/drug_treatment_of_anorexia.php">my post on pharmacotherapy of href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anorexia_Nervosa" rel="tag">Anorexia Nervosa.   The question is one that comes up a lot, and the answers, by SteveR (no URL given) are…
I used to work in an eating disorders treatment program.  From time to time, I give talks on the subject.  When I get to the part about the use of psychiatric medication, I always start with something like this: "frankly, the role of medication in the treatment of eating disorders is extremely limited." This pessimistic view was amplified this week, by a report in the href="http://jama.ama-assn.org/" rel="tag">Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA).  What is a bit unusual about the report is that it was picked up in the major news media ( href="http://www.nytimes.com/2006/…
This post is not interesting to specialists, but may be of some use to others.  I'm writing it mostly because the matter has been href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/06/12/AR2006061200722.html">reported in the mainstream press, and I think some clarification is in order.   Wellbutrin XL has been approved by the US FDA, "for the prevention of major depressive episodes in patients with a history of seasonal affective disorder." In this post, I go over some of the history of the product, and try to explain why the new indication is important, or not.  Continue…
No, it's not a new concept car from Detroit.  It is a website that is designed to collect suggestions for the next edition of the Diagnostical and Statistical Manual (DSM-V).  It occurred to me to mention it here, after reading a recent article in Seed magazine. href="http://www.seedmagazine.com/news/2006/06/serenity_now.php">Serenity Now!, written by href="http://www.seedmagazine.com/news/author-stu-hutson/">Stu Hutson, posted on href="http://www.seedmagazine.com/news/2006/06/">June 8, 2006 12:14 AM, is in the category href="http://www.seedmagazine.com/news/brain-behavior…