Clinical Psychiatry News articles from April 2009

Clinical Psychiatry News archives from April 2009

DSM-V task force weighing changes.
April 1, 2009... Physicians and researchers charged with updating the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders expect significant changes for the next edition, due to debut in about 3 years. The proposed revisions will affect not only the...

Severe anxiety presages suicide risk, data show: expert questions traditional indicators.
April 1, 2009... SANTA ANA PUEBLO, N.M.--A growing body of evidence shows that severe anxiety often precedes suicide attempts in psychiatric patients, Dr. Jan Fawcett said at the annual meeting of the Anxiety Disorders Association of America. In some...

Combo drug is approved for resistant depression.
April 1, 2009... The Food and Drug Administration's recent approval of Eli Lilly's olanzapine/fluoxetine combination drug Symbyax for recalcitrant depression has been hailed as an important advance in the management of patients with major depressive disorder...

Vital signs.
April 1, 2009... Psychiatry Fills 99% of Residency Positions in 2009 Source: National Resident Matching Program

APA board votes to drop industry-sponsored symposia.
April 1, 2009... The American Psychiatric Association has become one of the first professional societies to take a step away from the appearance of conflict of interest with a decision to repudiate industry-sponsored symposia. The group's board of trustees...

Suicide bombers deconstructed.(EDITORIAL)
April 1, 2009... What makes the suicide bomber tick? As mental health professionals, it is incumbent upon us to understand and consider the possibilities. The existence of suicide bombers dates back at least to World War II, when some Japanese soldiers tied...

The dog ate my buprenorphine!(EDITORIAL)
April 1, 2009... During the nearly 6 years I have been treating opiate dependence with buprenorphine, I have heard a variety of explanations for requests for additional orders: It got wet. It was stolen. I lost it. It fell in the toilet. The police confiscated...

Long-term therapy has its place.(LETTERS)(Letter to the editor)
April 1, 2009... I enjoy reading Dr. Robert T. London's column and would like to respond to the recent one on psychotherapy ("Reframing Therapy for the 21st Century," The Psychiatrist's Toolbox, January 2009, p. 16). I would have to disagree with his negative...

Therapy: we must stay in forefront.(LETTERS)
April 1, 2009... I am in total agreement with Dr. Robert T. London when he talks about the need to change our thinking about psychotherapeutic care ("Refraining Therapy for the 21st Century," The Psychiatrist's Toolbox, January 2009, p. 16). We...

Red balloon technique is positive.(LETTERS)(Hypnosis)(Brief article)
April 1, 2009... I want to thank Dr. Robert T. London for his column about helping patients cope with tough economic times ("How About a Bailout for Our Patients," The Psychiatrist's Toolbox, December 2008, p. 15). He certainly gave some useful advice...

Word of caution on opioids.(LETTERS)(Letter to the editor)
April 1, 2009... A word of caution is due on the use of opioids for chronic pain resulting from arthritis ("Guidelines Focus on Opioids for Chronic Pain," March 2009, p. 10). Except for unusually severe osteoarthritis or fibromyalgia, opioids are not...

Funding by industry biases research.(Does pharmaceutical industry funding bias research?)
April 1, 2009... Over the last few years, concern about industry-funded bias in research has been growing. The pharmaceutical industry funds slightly more than half of the research being done today. The National Institutes of Health comes next, funding...

Non-industry funded research can be biased, too.(Does pharmaceutical industry funding bias research?)
April 1, 2009... For almost 100 years, industry has been a powerful motivating force in the creation of new technology and the underwriting of scientific research. But in the last 2 decades, there has been a campaign to decry industry funding, claiming that...

Revised imagery protocol may help some vets.(ADULT PSYCHIATRY)
April 1, 2009... CHICAGO -- Imagery rehearsal for posttraumatic nightmares was not notably effective in a randomized controlled trial in Vietnam veterans, but after tweaking the protocol, it proved more successful in a pilot study in Operation Iraqi Freedom...

PTSD tied to metabolic syndrome in veterans.(ADULT PSYCHIATRY)
April 1, 2009... Posttraumatic stress disorder appears to have a significant relationship with the development of metabolic syndrome, Pia S. Heppner, Ph.D., and her colleagues have reported. Their observational study of 253 male and female veterans found that...

Trauma in ED: brief interventions can help.(ADULT PSYCHIATRY)
April 1, 2009... CHICAGO -- Repeated, brief psychological interventions performed in the emergency department within minutes of a trauma did not significantly reduce subsequent rates of posttraumatic stress syndrome in a retrospective analysis of 129 survivors...

Fink! Still at large: random violence such as the recent shooting in Alabama raises questions about survivor guilt. How can psychiatrists help near-victims of these tragedies process their emotions?(ADULT PSYCHIATRY)
April 1, 2009... The shooting spree in Alabama just a few weeks ago, allegedly by a 28-year-old man named Michael McLendon, appears to have been carried out, paradoxically, both without thought and with thorough planning. It was a cold-blooded crime, details...

CAM: a valuable adjunct.(THE PSYCHIATRIST'S TOOLBOX)
April 1, 2009... The use of nontraditional, or complementary and alternative therapies to address health problems in. this country is more common now more than ever. A survey by The National Center for Health Statistics ("Complementary and Alternative...

Doxazosin may help ease PTSD symptoms, nightmares.
April 1, 2009... CHICAGO -- A controlled-re-lease formulation of the anti-hypertension medication doxazosin significantly reduced nightmares and overall posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms in a small open-label trial. Doxazosin (Cardura), a selective...

Obesity raises risk for postpartum depression.(ADULT PSYCHIATRY)
April 1, 2009... SAN DIECO -- Prepregnancy obesity is an independent risk factor for postpartum depression, a large analysis demonstrates. Common pregnancy stressors such as divorce or separation or involvement in a physical fight also were found to...

Don't miss the depression in fibromyalgia.(ADULT PSYCHIATRY)
April 1, 2009... KANANASKIS, ALTA. -- A significant portion of all fibromyalgia patients with depression are not receiving adequate treatment for the disorder, if the experience of a multidisciplinary Canadian tertiary-care pain clinic is any indication. A...

Adjunctive aripiprazole reduces hospitalization.(ADULT PSYCHIATRY)
April 1, 2009... CHICAGO -- Using aripiprazole for augmentation therapy in adults with bipolar disorder already on a mood stabilizer resulted in significantly fewer hospitalizations than augmentation with other atypical antipsychotics in a large retrospective...

Pruritus is strongly associated with comorbid psychopathology.(ADULT PSYCHIATRY)
April 1, 2009... SAN FRANCISCO -- Patients with pruritus are twice as likely to have a comorbid psychiatric diagnosis as those with other dermatologic diagnoses, according to a large epidemiologic study. This association is driven largely by the strong...

Lamotrigine for depressed phase of bipolar disorder.(EVIDENCE-BASED PSYCHIATRIC MEDICINE)
April 1, 2009... The Problem You work in a group practice. One of your partners routinely prescribes lamotrigine for patients in the depressed phase of their diagnosed bipolar disorder. The Question Is lamotrigine efficacious in depression due to...

Judicious use of bipolar diagnosis is advised.(CHILD PSYCHIATRY)
April 1, 2009... NEW YORK -- Juvenile bipolar disorder is a controversial diagnosis, and broad disagreement exists among both clinicians and researchers about how the diagnosis should be made, according to Dr. Jennifer Harris, of the department of psychiatry at...

Statins may cut AD risk, even in ApoE4 carriers.(GERIATRIC PSYCHIATRY)(Clinical report)
April 1, 2009... Statins appear to cut the risk of developing Alzheimer's disease by up to 56%, even in those with the high-risk apolipoprotein E4 allele. The link between statin use and risk reduction was consistent for lipophilic and hydrophilic agents,...

Cerebral injury in dementia is tied to diabetes.(GERIATRIC PSYCHIATRY)
April 1, 2009... Two distinct patterns of cerebral injury were associated with dementia in autopsy studies, depending on whether or not the subject had diabetes. In subjects without diabetes, dementia was associated with a greater load of amyloid-[beta]...

Cash incentives encourage smoking cessation.(ADDICTION PSYCHIATRY)
April 1, 2009... Paying people to quit smoking significantly increased smoking-cessation rates, compared with a control strategy that had no financial incentives, according to a workplace-based study. Previous studies of workplace-based financial incentives...

All states except Oklahoma see dip in smoking deaths.(ADDICTION PSYCHIATRY)(Report)
April 1, 2009... Overall rates of smoking-attributable mortality declined in 49 states and the District of Columbia from 1996-1999 to 2000-2004, with the greatest drops occurring in Nevada, California, and Virginia. New state-specific data on...

Internet-based Substance abuse screening, self-help come of age.(ADDICTION PSYCHIATRY)
April 1, 2009... WASHINGTON -- Internet-based brief screening and self-help interventions for addictions provide an option for people who otherwise might not make it in to see a clinician in person, according to an addiction specialist who has been piloting...

Perspective.(PREVENTION IN ACTION)(preventing psychiatric disorders in mild traumatic brain injury patients)(Report)
April 1, 2009... Until recently, mild traumatic brain injury was presumed to be not very important for generating long-term symptoms or problems. In fact, this consideration was a huge source of contention among those who granted disability status of patients...

Watch out for psychiatric illness after mild TBI.(PREVENTION IN ACTION)
April 1, 2009... Mild traumatic brain injury is a "silent epidemic," according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. But the condition has been generating a lot of noise recently. Reports of studies showing a link between mild traumatic brain...

Asperger's diagnosis is tenuous after a crime.(FORENSIC PSYCHIATRY)
April 1, 2009... SEATTLE -- Individuals with Asperger's syndrome seldom commit crimes, experts said at the annual meeting of the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law. But when they do, definitively diagnosing the disorder and mounting a legal defense can...

Grassley digs into Biederman.(POLICY & PRACTICE)(Chuck Grassley)(Dr. Joseph Biederman )(Brief article)
April 1, 2009... Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) has tenaciously gone after what he sees as conflict of interest in the medical field, focusing closely on psychiatry. In the latest volley in his investigation into Dr. Joseph Biederman of Harvard University, Sen....

Dementias three times as costly.(POLICY & PRACTICE)
April 1, 2009... The latest report on Alzheimer's disease and other dementias from the Alzheimer's Association finds that Medicare pays out three times as much for beneficiaries with brain diseases, averaging $15,000 annually, compared with about $5,000 for...

Painkiller admissions on rise.(POLICY & PRACTICE)(Report)(Brief article)
April 1, 2009... The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) is reporting that prescription painkiller misuse admissions have risen from 1% of total admissions in 1997 to 5% in 2007. The data come from the Treatment Episode Data Set...

Group wants ban on industry CME.(POLICY & PRACTICE)
April 1, 2009... The consumer watchdog group Public Citizen has asked the American Medical Association to support a ban on commercial support of continuing medical education. In a letter to the chairs of the AMA's ethical and CME councils, Public Citizen's...

CNS drugs rank high in cost.(POLICY & PRACTICE)
April 1, 2009... Medications that affect the central nervous system accounted for about $28 billion of the $208 billion American adults spent on prescription drugs in 2006, said the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. Metabolic drugs topped the list at...

Boston limits tobacco sales.(POLICY & PRACTICE)
April 1, 2009... Boston has banned tobacco-product sales at pharmacies and on college campuses. The Boston Public Health Commission's board of health also banned new permits for smoking bars, such as hookah and cigar bars, and prohibited the sale of blunt...

Physicians postponing retirement.(POLICY & PRACTICE)
April 1, 2009... Fewer physicians left group practices in 2008 than in 2007, and most group practice leaders believe that this change reflects more physicians' postponement of retirement because of the poor economy, said the American Medical Group Association....

Medical school leaders are poised for challenges.(PRACTICE TRENDS)
April 1, 2009... Fresh from their successful efforts to persuade Congress and the president to dramatically increase federal biomedical research funding, the nation's medical school deans are now working to prioritize which issues to tackle over the next...

Supportive housing services grants.(FYI)
April 1, 2009... The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration is accepting applications for fiscal year 2009 Services in Supportive Housing grants. The program will fund services for chronically homeless individuals and families, in...

Evidence-based community services.(FYI)
April 1, 2009... The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration is offering a Knowledge Informing Transformation (KIT) packet. The packet gives information to help mental health providers develop community-based services for people with serious...

Adolescent, family treatment grants.(FYI)
April 1, 2009... The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration is accepting applications for fiscal year 2009 for Family Centered Substance Abuse Treatment Grants for Adolescents and their Families. The program will provide substance abuse...

Addiction treatment manual.(FYI)
April 1, 2009... The Center for Substance Abuse Treatment at the Substance Abuse & Mental Health Services Administration has free copies of a new training manual, which provides training information that serves to introduce substance abuse treatment...

Drug-Free Communities.(FYI)
April 1, 2009... New grant funds are available for existing grantees of the Drug-Free Communities Support Mentoring Program. The application deadline is April 24. The program is a partnership between the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy and...

Diversion, Trauma Recovery grants.(FYI)
April 1, 2009... The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration is accepting applications for fiscal year 2009 for the Jail Diversion and Trauma Recovery Program-Priority to Veterans grants. The grants will address the needs of individuals with...

Behavioral research web site.(FYI)
April 1, 2009... The Office of Behavioral and Social Sciences Research has enhanced its Web site so that scientists, advocacy groups, and the public can view key information on behavioral and social science research at the National Institutes of Health. The...

State mental health reports.(FYI)
April 1, 2009... Short reports on the prevalence of substance abuse and mental health problems for each U.S. state and the District of Columbia are now available from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. The "States in Brief" reports...

Road to Recovery Web site.(FYI)(Website overview)
April 1, 2009... The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration has launched a new Web site with information about activities leading up to National Alcohol and Drug Addiction Recovery Month in September 2009, the 20th anniversary of "Recovery...

Tighter regulation of supplements is urged.(PRACTICE TRENDS)
April 1, 2009... The days when the dietary supplements industry is allowed to regulate itself may be numbered after release of a new federal report addressing growing concerns about dietary supplement industry. The report, issued in March by the Government...

FDA approval does not bar suits, Supreme Court rules.(PRACTICE TRENDS)
April 1, 2009... In an eagerly anticipated opinion, the U.S. Supreme Court has upheld a lower court ruling that Food and Drug Administration approval does not give pharmaceutical companies immunity from product liability lawsuits. The justices voted 6-3 to...

Rear-view mirror foolishness.(THE ETHICAL WAY)
April 1, 2009... I hadn't planned to write another April Fool's column highlighting the most egregious cases of ethical misconduct of the previous year. But I couldn't help it. After all, several cases emerged in which psychiatrists (and physicians in...