Here’s a common scenario. You have a patient who has tried three or four antidepressants over the years; all have been somewhat effective at least initially, but eventually that effectiveness waned.

Informed consent is a foundation for good clinical practice and can provide legal protection. But informed consent is more than defensive medicine. It is a vehicle for framing good care. How often do people use the consent process?

Benzodiazepines (BZDs) are widely used, rarely studied, and much maligned. So where exactly do they fit in today’s medication arsenal for treating anxiety? This article discusses when BZDs are appropriate and when they are not, and how to choose among the various BZDs.
But before doing so, let’s first address the elephant that always seems to be lurking in the BZD room: their addictive potential.

You’ve probably heard about a new “digital pill” called Abilify MyCite. The product, which was FDA approved in November 2017, is the first drug in the U.S. with a digital ingestion tracking system.

This article covers the judicious consideration and use of lithium in children with suicidal thinking and behavior as part of their overall mental health picture. These challenging situations demand that we stay calm and remain receptive to the frustrations of the family, while at the same time addressing the child’s difficulties.

In this article, Dr. Aiken draws on his vast clinical experience to help us recognize the different types of patients who might present some degree of bipolarity, then provides tips on evidence-based treatments.

Stigma is a condition that can be socially discrediting. When it comes to substance use disorders, internalized stigma can lead to feelings of shame. Often, people who suffer from addiction feel discriminated against. People also feel very bad about their behavior, and over time they get more disillusioned with themselves and their own ability to change.

The first thing that I would say is that complex PTSD can sometimes be harder to spot and diagnose, because when we’re looking for symptoms of conventional PTSD, we’re often looking for that first criterion: Has there been a single event that your patient would consider traumatic?