Intranasal Esketamine: New Hope for Suicidal Patients?

Topics: Depression | Esketamine | Fast-acting | Free Articles | Intra-nasal | Ketamine | Management | Psychopharmacology | Suicidality

It’s likely your patients have asked you about esketamine. The buzz is that it’s a rapid-acting miracle cure for suicidal depression. Dr. Thomas Insel, former director of NIMH, declared that ketamine “might be the most important breakthrough in antidepressant treatment in decades” (www.nimh.nih.gov/about/directors/thomas-insel/blog/2014/ketamine

Deliberate Foreign Body Ingestion

Topics: Borderline Personality Disorder | Deliberate foreign body ingestion | DFBI | Free Articles | Gastroenterology | Malingering | Management | Obsessive compulsive disorder/OCD | Personality Disorders | Pica | Psychosis | Self-injury | Swallowing

During morning rounds at your inpatient unit, you are informed by staff that your patient M, a 32-year-old woman with bipolar disorder and borderline personality disorder, has swallowed a small pencil. This is her fourth swallowing episode since her admission to the unit 2 weeks ago. Even though you had restricted her access to sharp objects, she has ma

A Potentially Lethal Side Effect You Probably Never Heard Of

Topics: Clozapine | FDA Warnings | Free Articles | Management | Psychosis | Schizophrenia

In January 2020, the FDA issued a strong warning about constipation on clozapine. With a fatality rate of 1 in 1000, this is not just a nuisance side effect, and it can happen with other antipsychotics and psychotropics as well. This type of constipation is caused by slowing of the gut, or gastric hypomotility, and it requires a unique approach. Fiber s