Psychiatry

Depression is a common problem among elderly patients in primary care clinics and inpatient settings.

Collaboration is important in healthcare, as evidenced by the growing number of "learning communities" and grassroots efforts that are bringing people and organizations together to work on the issue of eliminating disparities in health and healthcare.

A national health information technology infrastructure (NHITI) is not only necessary, but it is cardinal to improving delivery and reducing costs of healthcare in the United States.

The powerful vendor-lobbying group, HIMSS, has been extremely successful over the last 8 years lobbying our elected political leaders about HIT.

Between October 17-21, 2009, the 39th annual conference of the Society of Neuroscience drew some 30,500 people to Chicago, where Alzforum reporters buttonholed scientists for their comments on the presentations.

I have been following with interest all the discussions about the new Medical Home (aka, the Patient Centered Medical Home) concept. This is our silver bullet that will improve patient access, raise quality levels, increase overall satisfaction and save billions of healthcare dollars - all at the same time!

Adults partaking in animal-assisted therapy while recovering from total-joint replacement surgery require 50 percent less pain medication than those who do not.

Findings a cause for concern as depressed patients are excluded from virtually all controlled trials of opioids as a high risk group for addiction.

The FDA has sent a letter to 30 companies warning that it hasn’t approved beverages containing both caffeine and alcohol, and that it intends to begin removing such products from store shelves in 30 days if the companies can’t explain why such products are safe and legal.

Participants in a recent study who took the full 30 minutes to finish a test meal had higher concentrations of gut hormones that induce satiety and meal termination.

The pundits are going to have their field day with this one. "The danger [with this Bill] is that as costs continue to rise and coverage becomes less comprehensive, people will conclude that we've tried health reform and it didn't work. But the real problem will be that we didn't really try it.

In older patients, decreased muscle strength is related to an increased risk for Alzheimer's disease and mild cognitive impairment.

The Institute of Medicine released its "To Err is Human" report in 2000. Now that we're nearing the end of 2009, safety experts are examining the extent to which the IOM's recommendations have been implemented.

We rank 19th among industrialized countries in preventable deaths in such conditions as diabetes, epilepsy, stroke, influenza, ulcers, pneumonia, infant mortality, and appendicitis.

Committing to the promise it holds, Rush University Medical Center psychiatrists are now putting into action transcranial magnetic stimulation, the first FDA-approved, non-invasive antidepressant device-based treatment that is clinically proven for depression treatment, making them among the first to test the technique after having helped develop it.

The new health Internet being designed by federal officials will hopefully be up and running by next year, a move that will allow physicians and patients to more easily exchange health information.

The answer may surprise you.

In contrast to earlier research, new findings from the American Academy of Neurology show that diabetes may slow the progression of memory loss in Alzheimer's patients, not increase it.

The weight gain that is often seen in children taking antipsychotic medications can also have a negative impact on metabolic factors in those children.

Dementia is a terminal illness. However, people with advanced dementias often languish in skilled nursing facilities, far from the ministrations of specialists. And, with reasonable luck, they have directives that specify that they are not to be taken to the hospital in the event of a respiratory arrest. Consequently, most of us are not privy to the mechanisms of demise in such situations.

Researchers at the University of Pittsburgh have identified new predictive factors in children that may correlate highly to an increased risk for substance abuse in adolescence.

Remember, we have essentially 2 options; All we can do is pick the lesser of the evils. Example: Federal control is bad; corporate control is worse.

Researchers at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill have discovered how the 22q11 gene deletion is associated with changes in brain development that affect how the circuit system in the brain is put together.

At a healthcare forum hosted by Politics magazine, current and former members of Congress said they believed President Obama would sign some sort of a healthcare reform package, most likely later this year. “There would be too much political damage done if something doesn’t pass, so Congress will find a way,” said Congressman Michael Burgess, MD (R-TX).

Children with certain psychiatric conditions, such as ADHD, social phobia, hostility, and depression, may be more likely to suffer from Internet addiction, show the results of a new study.

Professionals should educate and monitor their pain patients' use of alcohol according to a University of Florida study which found that use of alcohol as a pain management strategy was consistent across the three patient groups, ranging from 25 to 28 percent. Use was more prevalent in men and corresponded to higher income levels.

Despite widespread use of smartphones to perform a variety of tasks, experts say consumers are still waiting for the right incentives to push them to use their phones to access personal health records and manage their medical information on the go.

Bipolar disorder may be a condition that afflicted patients eventually outgrow, according to a new study from the University of Missouri.