Posts tagged psychiatry

“To BD or not to BD: functional neuroimaging and the boundaries of bipolarity” Bipolar disorders are major mood disorders defined by the presence of discrete episodes of depression and either mania, in bipolar I disorder, or hypomania, in bipolar II disorder. There is little contention that both are serious psychiatric conditions or that they are associated with substantial suffering, disability, risk of suicide and cost to the community. Recently, focus has shifted away from classic manic-depressive illness toward a ‘bipolar spectrum’ model, which allows for much softer presentations to be conceptualized as bipolarity, but the boundaries of this concept remain contentious. In this article, we will consider the contribution of neuroimaging to delineating the bipolar phenotype and differentiating it from similar disorders. [via] Prediction: this model will be the case one day with psychopathy and other one card shark conditions, maybe not the next revision of the DSM…but eventually.

“To BD or not to BD: functional neuroimaging and the boundaries of bipolarity”

Bipolar disorders are major mood disorders defined by the presence of discrete episodes of depression and either mania, in bipolar I disorder, or hypomania, in bipolar II disorder. There is little contention that both are serious psychiatric conditions or that they are associated with substantial suffering, disability, risk of suicide and cost to the community. Recently, focus has shifted away from classic manic-depressive illness toward a ‘bipolar spectrum’ model, which allows for much softer presentations to be conceptualized as bipolarity, but the boundaries of this concept remain contentious. In this article, we will consider the contribution of neuroimaging to delineating the bipolar phenotype and differentiating it from similar disorders. [via]

Prediction: this model will be the case one day with psychopathy and other one card shark conditions, maybe not the next revision of the DSM…but eventually.

There is a very important distinction to be made between somebody who is psychotic, which means they have something like schizophrenia, and people who are psychopathic, which means they are a psychopath and don’t care about other people (…) no empathy and no guilt.
David Eagleman clearing confusion with regards to commonly misused psychological terms. “Neuroscientist weighs in on CO shooting suspect” [via]   

happyharry:

this should be watched by everyone

I enjoy Szasz, but re: schizophrenia, researchers may have found that it is a brain disease or virus- which would no longer categorize it as merely a behavior. But, he makes a striking points about other types of conditions. Szasz’s main arguments can be summarised as follows:

  • “The myth of mental illness: “Mental illness” is an expression, a metaphor that describes an offending, disturbing, shocking, or vexing conduct, action, or pattern of behavior, such as schizophrenia, as an “illness” or “disease”. Szasz wrote: “If you talk to God, you are praying; If God talks to you, you have schizophrenia. If the dead talk to you, you are a spiritualist; If you talk to the dead, you are a schizophrenic.”While people behave and think in ways that are very disturbing, and that may resemble a disease process (pain, deterioration, response to various interventions), this does not mean they actually have a disease. To Szasz, disease can only mean something people “have,” while behavior is what people “do”. Diseases are “malfunctions of the human body, of the heart, the liver, the kidney, the brain” while “no behavior or misbehavior is a disease or can be a disease. That’s not what diseases are” Szasz cites drapetomania as an example behavior which many in society did not approve of, being labeled and widely cited as a ‘disease’ and likewise with women who did not bow to men’s will as having “hysteria”Psychiatry actively obscures the difference between (mis)behavior and disease, in its quest to help or harm parties to conflicts. By calling certain people “diseased”, psychiatry attempts to deny them responsibility as moral agents, in order to better control them.” (mas). 
Some of you might remember that I’ve started a project to help send supplies to the Mars Kline Psychiatric Center in Haiti.  After reading this NYTimes article, I immediately contacted and was asked to partner with an amazing U.S.-based organization that has worked in Haiti’s hospitals for over 20 years. We will soon be ready to begin our efforts to alleviate some of the day-to-day challenges of the Haitian mental health population, such as bedding, toiletries, so that competent professionals there can resume their focus on treatment.  It has come to my attention that another psychiatric hospital in Port-au-Prince, called Beudet, is in even worse shape and also desperately in need of basic supplies as well. The work has now doubled.  I’ll be reaching out to corporate sponsors such as Target and Walmart for everything from blankets to bedding, q-tips and soap, plates, cups and very basic medical supplies like gloves and first-aid items.  The professional doctors there are working very hard with very little. Our mission is to stock these hospitals with the basic supplies needed to care for hundreds of patients suffering from such conditions as PTSD, depression/anxiety to more severe forms of mental illness/psychosis, and who have no family or anywhere else to go.  You know what this means… I will be reaching out to my friends on Tumblr in the near future for assistance, connections and ideas.  I had a great response the last time I posted about this project starting up, and would love your input now.  I have a stellar communications director to help me coordinate…. and now we are moving forward on a project that we both believe in.  If you would like to get involved, please contact us.

Some of you might remember that I’ve started a project to help send supplies to the Mars Kline Psychiatric Center in Haiti.  After reading this NYTimes article, I immediately contacted and was asked to partner with an amazing U.S.-based organization that has worked in Haiti’s hospitals for over 20 years. We will soon be ready to begin our efforts to alleviate some of the day-to-day challenges of the Haitian mental health population, such as bedding, toiletries, so that competent professionals there can resume their focus on treatment. 

It has come to my attention that another psychiatric hospital in Port-au-Prince, called Beudet, is in even worse shape and also desperately in need of basic supplies as well. The work has now doubled.  I’ll be reaching out to corporate sponsors such as Target and Walmart for everything from blankets to bedding, q-tips and soap, plates, cups and very basic medical supplies like gloves and first-aid items.  The professional doctors there are working very hard with very little. Our mission is to stock these hospitals with the basic supplies needed to care for hundreds of patients suffering from such conditions as PTSD, depression/anxiety to more severe forms of mental illness/psychosis, and who have no family or anywhere else to go. 

You know what this means… I will be reaching out to my friends on Tumblr in the near future for assistance, connections and ideas.  I had a great response the last time I posted about this project starting up, and would love your input now.  I have a stellar communications director to help me coordinate…. and now we are moving forward on a project that we both believe in.  If you would like to get involved, please contact us.

Mind over Meds

bobbycalderwood:

Fantastic memoir of a Psychopharmacologist turned doctor.  The type of integrated treatment he proposes is a good step for Psychology, and for medicine.

“in the first half of the 20th century, American psychiatry was virtually ‘brainless.’ … In the second half of the 20th century, psychiatry became virtually ‘mindless.’

Revolution in the Criminal Justice System: Drug Courts

Seminar series on Legal and Ethical Issues in Psychiatry and General Medicine

Division of Law, Ethics, and Psychiatry

Department of Psychiatry

Columbia University Medical Center

Hon. Donald J. Volkert, Jr.

Assignment Judge, Passaic Vicinage

Superior Court of New Jersey

Tuesday, March 16th, 2010

4:00-5:15pm

yeah, so in the new DSM V

  • Asperger’s Syndrome is out - everyone’s going to have an “autistic spectrum disorder” now.
  • Personality Disorders are out - kind of. In their place, there’s 5 Personality Disorder Types, each of which you can have to varying degrees, and also 6 Personality Traits, each of which you can have to varying degrees.
  • Hypoactive Sexual Desire Disorder - the disease which failed-antidepressant-turned-aphrodisiac flibanserin is supposed to treat - is out, to be replaced by Sexual Interest and Arousal Disorder.
  • Binge Eating Disorder, Hypersexuality Disorder, and Gambling Addiction are in. Having Fun is not a disorder yet, but that’s on the agenda for DSM-VI.

Heres’ more on it.