Four questions for a quick initial evaluation of insomnia.

You wrote an excellent book on non-pharmacological approaches to insomnia, and I’d like to go over some of the techniques you suggested. What are some practical techniques that psychiatrists can use in the context of short visits with patients?

When it comes to legal issues, prevention is by far the best medicine. In this article, we will talk about good forensic habits that will protect you from certified letters signed by attorneys. Much of this advice is gleaned from that classic textbook, Clinical Handbook of Psychiatry and the Law (Gutheil and Appelbaum, Lippincott Williams and Wilkins, 3rd ed., 2000).

When HIPAA first came out, the big concern was that it would limit the release of psychiatric information and would place barriers to being able to talk to other members of a patient’s treatment team. But it turns out that HIPAA actually had the opposite effect in many ways.

In this article, guest author Jeffrey S. Barkin, MD, describes an approach to reading journal literature designed to derive the most useful information in the least amount of time.

It's another hectic day in the office. You are evaluating a complicated new patient, who presents with multiple medical and psychiatric problems. Over the next 50 minutes, you're going to have to make a number of medication decisions, and you don't have the time to dig around in your bookcase, nor have you spent enough time in the gym to be able to heave around your PDR. You need all the relevant information in one spot, and you'd prefer to access it while you are sitting and talking to your patient.

Electronic prescribing allows you to write prescriptions from your computer, and either print them or, in some areas, transmit them directly to a pharmacy. There are many advantages to the practitioner and the patient.

You’ve probably heard that looking for something on the internet is like taking a drink from a fire hydrant…. We’ve made it a bit easier by describing a few of our favorite websites.

Dr. Luo, you are one of the nation’s experts in how psychiatrists can use computer technology in their practice. When did you first get involved with using computers in psychiatry?

Dr. Grohol, you frequently speak on the use of e-mail in clinical practice. Can you give us some guidelines for how we should most appropriately use e-mail with our patients?