Choosing the “right” treatment for a given patient involves a large number of factors, including personal preference—both the clinician’s and the patient’s. Is there a better way?

Get advice on how to evaluate the methodology of biomarker studies in an interview with James Coyne, PhD, clinical health psychologist, professor emeritus of in the psychiatry with University of Pennsylvania and professor of health psychology, University of Groningen, the Netherlands.

The technology of drug testing has progressed significantly over the years. This is both good and bad for doctors. There are more options, but perhaps too many. There are many types of tests and they vary in terms of the drug detection time frames.

Learn about the benefits of toxicology screening in psychiatry in an interview with Alex Stalcup, MD, medical director of New Leaf Treatment Center in Layfayette, CA.

Too often our literature presents an oversimplified picture driven by some agenda, usually commercial. We prescribers, or, more accurately, “research consumers,” need a more complete and accurate description of what’s actually observed in clinical trials.

It’s easy to order labs—it’s the interpretation that’s difficult. In this article, we’ll review some of the more common labs you are likely to order as psychiatrists and give you some tips on interpreting them, as well as discussing what (if anything) you should do when a lab is abnormal.

In psychiatry, we typically order screening labs on new patients for a variety of purposes, including to rule out medical causes of psychiatric symptoms, to record baseline data before prescribing medications that may lead to lab abnormalities, and to screen for general medical problems. What labs should we order for new patients?

When you are planning to start a patient on medications, what labs should you order at baseline, and what should you order over time? This is quite a different question from whether to do a set of labs at the start of treatment to screen for disease etiology, and it’s an area where I believe we should be much more proactive.

Dr. Perlis, can you help us understand the role of pharmacogenetics in psychiatric practice?