Current Psychiatry Reviews - Volume 6, Issue 1, 2010

Expectancies are a class of psychological and neurobiological processes that may be responsible for part of the improvement observed with psychiatric treatments. Patients' expectations can substantially affect the results of clinical trials, and managing them is an important part of clinical care. This review describes the history of research on expectancy effects in Major Depressive Disorder (MDD), the relationship between Read More

Until relatively recently meditation was considered an esoteric subject unrelated to mainstream medical or psychological therapies. Over the last few decades meditation has been studied in a non religious, therapeutic setting. We describe what meditation isand define it as “being in the moment”. We also define the different types of meditation, including both mindfulness based stress reduction and mindfulness based co Read More

A novel form of dynamic analysis of mental status is postulated based on the theoretical concept that human behavior possesses a dual nature, comparable to waves and particles. Just as with quantum physics, both must be taken into account to obtain an accurate description. Human biological rhythms are governed by wave-based forms, including 28-day, 25-hour and ultradian (90-minute) periods. This study describe Read More

This paper reviews the problems of psychiatric assessment and the prediction of incapacity in the pilot population. It reviews the difficulty of providing evidence based standards and the interaction of intermittent stressors with performance as well as the difficulties of diagnosis and prediction in a population who may not fully disclose significant histories. Also reviewed are possible biases toward under-attribution of p Read More

Severe major depressive disorder (MDD) is associated with poorer response to treatment than milder forms of depression, but there is a lack of consensus about the optimal treatment approach. We conducted a qualitative review of the literature for clinical trials of severe MDD in adults (1975 - December 2008), to assess the effects of five treatment approaches: placebo, medication, psychotherapy, combined treatment, Read More

Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), a common complex psychiatric illness with a 2% lifetime prevalence rate is highlighted by World Health Organization (WHO) as one of the top 5 disabling illnesses in the world. Its treatment was the focus of formal guidance from National Institute for Clinical Excellence (NICE) in 2005. Despite the increased focus on treatment of OCD, it is an area that is often misunderstood and undert Read More

Purpose: Mood and anxiety disorders are among the most common behavioral sequelae of breast cancer as well as fatigue, sleep disturbance, and cognitive impairment. These symptoms cause serious disruption in patients' quality of life. In this review, we looked at the prevalence of depression and anxiety in breast cancer patients. The risk factors to develop mood and anxiety disorders in breast cancer, the effect of the differen Read More

Until recently, Japan had been unique in having no specialized legal provision for mentally ill criminal offenders. After longterm debate, fresh legislation was passed at last in 2003 to deal with the offenders who committed a felony such as homicide, arson, robbery, rape, indecent assault and injury under insane conditions by which they were judged to be criminally irresponsible or to have diminished responsibility. This new Read More