'Videogames as debilitating as drugs'
Computerandvideogames.com
ANI quotes Psychiatrist Guy Porter, who co-wrote a paper based on the survey's findings for the Australian and New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry and said: ...

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CBS News
Attorney: Suspect 'unaware' child died
Livingston Daily
Genesee County District Judge John Conover in Flint ordered Brandon Joshua-Frederick Hayes of Argentine Township to undergo a psychiatric evaluation at the ...
Mother charged with murderFenton Tri County Times
Judge orders forensic exam for Brandon Hayes, man accused of torturing ...MLive.com

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Inside the Units Treating War Trauma
New York Times
The writer, a psychiatrist, is a professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at George Washington University. As a veteran of the Iraq war who is ...

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Salon
The hidden damage of psychiatric drugs
Salon
In the past few months, the perennial controversy over psychiatric drug use has been growing considerably more heated. ...
A Conversation with Robert Whitaker The Astonishing Rise of Mental Illness in ...CounterPunch
Med NationBig Think

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I heard Irvin Yalom speak today. He's a psychiatrist/writer/ very famous shrink at Stanford, and he was at Johns Hopkins today to give the Jerome Frank lecture. The title of his talk was "Staring at The Sun: Overcoming the Terror of Death." It's also the title of his latest book. The auditorium was packed---no surprise here. When I heard Dr. Yalom was coming, maybe a month ago, I made a point to block off the time to be there-- I've never heard him speak and I was looking forward to this. Please let me share the experience with you.

Dr. Yalom is a gifted writer. He writes about his work in colorful and accessible ways, and he speaks about it this way as well. He lectures an audience of hundreds as though he is talking to a single friend. No notes, no hesitation, and he seems so at ease as he talks openly about work that is quite intimate. His specialties are group psychotherapy and existential psychotherapy, and he classifies the existential issues as death, isolation, freedom (as in freedom to make decisions and to steer the course of one's life, not political freedom), and meaning. "We are unfortunately meaning-seeking creatures heralded into a universe that has no meaning." Now he tells me!

Dr. Yalom started by talking about Dr. Jerome Frank (for whom the lecture is titled)--one of his mentors --and talked about a poignant visit with him near the end of Dr. Frank's life. Dr. Frank was also one of my psychotherapy supervisors, perhaps at a time in my training when I took such things for granted and had no true appreciation of what an amazing gift it was to be his student. Dr. Yalom talked about his memories, and I revisited my own.

Dr. Yalom talked about his own psychotherapy experiences: his three years in psychoanalysis in Baltimore "There was so much attention to the distant past and so little to the future and our death." Later in life, in California, he spent two years in therapy with Rollo May.

Death anxiety, Yalom contends, is an issue for many people--one patients won't necessarily bring up on their own, one they avoid if they sense the therapist is uncomfortable, one that, indeed, makes therapists uneasy as they, too, have their own death anxiety to face. Perhaps it's easier to avoid the topic; after all, there's nothing to do about it. We're all going to die. The therapist, he says, has a role in discussing death, and therapy can diminish the anxiety.

He talked a little about his work with cancer patients and how facing death can have a transforming effect; people get a better sense of priorities. "What a pity I had to wait until now to learn how to live," one dying patient told Dr. Yalom.

By far, the most interesting parts of the talk were when Yalom talked about specific examples of his own work with patients and the interactions that transpired. He talked about a patient--a psychotherapist--- who asked him about his own death anxiety (he responded) and who talked about his concerns about how Dr. Yalom might judge him. One nice thing about being Irvin Yalom is that you can get up in front of an audience of hundreds and talk openly about your work, boundary violations and all. He ended with the statement, "To become wise, you must listen to the wild dogs barking in your cellar." --a version of a quote by Nietzsche. I'm still thinking about that one.

It's been a while since I've heard a lecture like this. We've become so focused on psychiatry as the treatment of illnesses, of which drug at what dose, for how long, or which type of psychotherapy, and certainly we assume that what goes on in therapy includes talking about issues that having meaning to patients--including things that evoke anxiety, and the nuances of life that include meaning. We know we talk about these things behind closed doors--but we don't often talk about the process of such transactions.----- Listen to our latest podcast at mythreeshrinks.com or subscribe to our rss feed. Email us at mythreeshrinks at gmail.

Psychiatry Congress To Tackle Mental Health Issues
Voxy
The Asian Forum - A Shared Endeavour, Monday 3 May 8.15am Professor Sheila Hollins, Professor of Psychiatry of Intellectual Disability at St. George's, ...

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Drs. Keen and Brewer join Erlanger's Neurobehavioral and Memory Services
WDEF News 12
Dr. Keen is board-certified in general adult psychiatry and geriatric psychiatry. Prior to joining Erlanger, Dr. Keen practiced with the Outpatient ...

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Drug shows promise as part of Alzheimer's study
WRCB-TV
Dr. William Burke, UNMC Dept. of Psychiatry says "it actually improved memory compared to a placebo. It improved function compared to a placebo. ...
New Alzheimer's Drug Shows PromiseNews Channel 8

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PsychCentral.com (blog)
Loneliness is Not a DSM-5 Disorder, But it Still Hurts
PsychCentral.com (blog)
And as psychiatry debates the diagnostic minutiae of DSM-5, all of us may need to remind ourselves that millions in this country struggle against the ...

Reuters UK
Mood Food? Depressed People Eat More Chocolate
Medscape
Commenting on the findings, Gordon Parker, MD, PhD, of the School of Psychiatry, University of New South Wales, Australia, who was not involved in the study ...
Is chocolate linked to depression?The Money Times
Being Depressed Puts You In The Mood For ChocolateTopNews United Kingdom (blog)
Eating more chocolate linked to signs of depression, study findsBoston Globe (blog)
BusinessWeek -Thaindian.com
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Psychology Today (blog)
Mind over Meds
Psychology Today (blog)
I commend Dr. Carlat for urging his colleagues in psychiatry to expand their treatment options to include psychodynamic psychotherapy—a robust, ...

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Global
Creativity? There's a pill for that
Canada.com
But skeptics say it is less about advances in brain science and more about psychiatry shuffling more and more behaviours and reactions to life's letdowns ...
Expert warns of revisions to psychiatric 'bible'DSMNational Post
No more temper tantrumsMontreal Gazette
John Baglow: Message to disease industry -- That's why they call it 'acting ...National Post (blog)
National Post
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NorthJersey.com
Jeffrey A. Berman M.D.: Bergen Regional Medical Center
NorthJersey.com
Berman is a clinical assistant professor of psychiatry at Robert Wood Johnson Medical School in New Brunswick. He was a US Army Reserve medical unit ...

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Boston Globe
Psychiatrist says Odgren not delusional
Boston Globe
Prosecutor Daniel Bennett (left) cross-examined psychiatrist Montgomery Brower in Middlesex Superior Court. (Gretchen Ertl/ Associated Press/ Pool) By ...

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Health Care N Diet
Premature kids at increased risk of psychiatric disorders
Celebrities With Diseases
A recently conducted study has revealed that premature kids are more at risk of developing psychiatric disorders. According to www.sify.com, scientists have ...
Premature kids more likely to have psychiatric disorderSify
Children born before 26 weeks more likely to develop psychiatric problemsTelegraph.co.uk
Extreme preterm ups psych disorder riskUPI.com
TheMedGuru -TopNews United States
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Study Links Dreaming to Increased Memory Performance
Harvard Crimson
The researchers, led by Medical School psychiatry professor Robert A. Stickgold, sought to investigate this phenomenon in humans. ...

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A Retail Mogul's Gift for Mental Health
Wall Street Journal
This week, the couple plan to give $500000 to New York-Presbyterian Hospital to help provide mental-health services to patients admitted for non-psychiatric ...

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Violence link to medication rejected by psychiatrist
Irish Times
THE DECISION by the professional body for psychiatry not to comment on evidence at the recent Shane Clancy inquest has been described as a “disgrace” and ...

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PsychCentral.com
Premature kids more likely to have psychiatric disorder
Sify
An 11-year follow-up study of 219 extremely preterm children discovered that almost one quarter of such children had a psychiatric disorder at 11 years of ...
Extreme preterm ups psych disorder riskUPI.com
Premature kids at high risk of mental disorder--studyTheMedGuru
Children born before 26 weeks more likely to develop psychiatric problemsTelegraph.co.uk

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TMC looks to add psychiatric beds
Lexington Dispatch
Officials with Thomasville Medical Center say they need more room for psychiatric patients and have submitted an application for the ...