Medical Center

We People Smoke & How to Quit Even though the harmful effects of smoking have been known for decades, more people pick up the habit every day. Perhaps most alarming is the number of young people who smoke. In their 2007 study, researchers Harris, Schwartz, and Thompson found that 24.3% of full-time college students in [...]

What is autism? Autism (pronounced awt-izm) is a mental condition that can start in childhood. A child with autism becomes very self-focused, loses the ability to relate to others, and has trouble with language and reasoning. A child with autism will have trouble with imaginative play, and will engage in repetitive behaviors and activities. No [...]

In adults initiating antidepressant therapy, there appears to be no clinically relevant variation in risk for suicidal acts by individual type or class of antidepressant medication, according to a report in the May issue of Archives of General Psychiatry.   The finding, from Sebastian Schneeweiss, MD, ScD, of Harvard Medical School in Boston, Massachusetts, and colleagues, [...]

Depression Depression refers to a wide range of mental health problems characterised by the absence of a positive affect – the loss of interest and enjoyment in ordinary things and experiences, low mood and a range of associated emotional, cognitive, physical and behavioural symptoms. Distinguishing the mood changes between clinically significant degrees of depression (known [...]

GERIATRIC APPROACH TO DEPRESSION  JT is an 80 year old white male who makes repeated visits to his doctor. Today’s complaints include bad taste in his mouth, sore muscles, dizziness and constipation. Last week his daughter reported he has been impossibly uncooperative at home with angry outbursts. JT’s spouse died 3 years ago, 6 months [...]

ATYPICAL ANTIPSYCHOTICS IN ELDERLY PATIENTS WITH DEMENTIA The Medicines Control Council wishes to inform prescribers of increased risks of cerebrovascular adverse events (including strokes and transient ischaemic attacks) and mortality associated with the use of atypical antipsychotics in elderly patients with dementia. The atypical antipsychotics to which this medicine safety alert refers include clozapine, risperidone, [...]

Antipsychotic Drugs May Boost Pneumonia Risk in Elderly Outpatients Older individuals residing in the community who are taking antipsychotic drugs appear to be at increased risk for community-acquired pneumonia, new research suggests. The data are drawn from a nested case-control study of elderly outpatients who were new users of antipsychotic drugs and under the care [...]

A genetic mutation linked to schizophrenia appears to disrupt communication between the two areas of the brain believed to be responsible for memory and may be an underlying cause of the brain disorder, researchers suggested in a study published online March 31st in Nature. The study found that a genetic mutation, known as 22q11 deletion [...]

Borderline Personality, Bipolar Disorder Equally Likely for Positive MDQ Screens Patients who score positive on the Mood Disorder Questionnaire (MDQ), the most widely used screening scale for bipolar disorder, are just as likely to be diagnosed as having borderline personality disorder as bipolar disorder, according to a study published online March 23 in the Journal [...]

1. Overview of Mental Illness The first determination a mental health board must make is whether a person is mentally ill, alcoholic, or drug abusing. In the scope of the commitment process, “mentally ill” is considered to include alcoholics and drug abusers. Mental illness is not defined in the Act. A psychiatrist, a licensed clinical [...]