Practice Tools and Tips

Article

Book Review: Inside Rehab—What Really Goes On in Rehab Facilities?

Topics: Addiction | Practice Tools and Tips | Psychotherapy | Substance Abuse

What goes on inside a residential rehab program? Inquiring minds would love to know, especially those of us who are treating addicts and counseling concerned family members. Rehab has traditionally been a kind of black box, an opaque entity where addicts enter, and 30 days later exit with an epiphany and a lifelong commitment to sobriety. Until they rel

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Article

Marijuana in 2015: What Should We Say to Our Patients?

Topics: Addiction | Practice Tools and Tips | Substance Abuse

How should we talk about marijuana with our patients? For psychiatrists, the topic usually arises with respect to two key areas: the potential adverse effects of marijuana use, especially upon those with other psychiatric disorders and our youth, and the question of the legitimate medical benefit of medical marijuana for particular medical and p

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Article

Medication Strategies for Helping People with Autism Spectrum Disorders

Topics: Autism Spectrum Disorder | Child Psychiatry | Free Articles | Practice Tools and Tips | Psychopharmacology Tips

Getting meds just right is challenging in autism. Sometimes we succeed. For example, a woman with minimal verbal ability is extremely aggressive. She is on a number of medications including valproate 1000 mg extended release, paroxetine 40 mg, ziprasidone 40 mg twice a day, alprazolam 1 mg twice a day, and a host of supplements. She settles down conside

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Expert Q&A

The Case Against Residential Rehab

Topics: Addiction | Practice Tools and Tips | Psychotherapy | Substance Abuse

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Expert Q&A

Evaluating and Treating Autism: Practical Issues

Topics: Anxiety Disorder | Child Psychiatry | Practice Tools and Tips | Psychopharmacology Tips

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Expert Q&A

The Substance Abuse Interventionist

Topics: Addiction | Practice Tools and Tips | Psychotherapy | Substance Abuse

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Article

Binge Eating Disorder: Should You Use Vyvanse?

Topics: Eating Disorders | Practice Tools and Tips | Psychopharmacology Tips | Psychotherapy

In January of this year, the FDA approved the stimulant lisdexamfetamine (Vyvanse) as the first drug with an indication for binge eating disorder (BED). Patients are hearing the buzz and may be asking you to prescribe it, but you may have some questions first. Is BED different from extreme overeating which plagues so many Americans? Is this just a stimu

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Expert Q&A

Understanding the New World of E-Cigarettes

Topics: Addiction | Cognitive Behavioral Therapy | Practice Tools and Tips | Psychotherapy | Smoking Cessation Agents | Substance Abuse

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Research Update

It Pays to Quit Smoking

Topics: Addiction | Practice Tools and Tips | Psychotherapy | Research Updates | Smoking Cessation Agents | Substance Abuse

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Article

Medications for Childhood PTSD: It’s All Off-Label

Topics: Child Psychiatry | Practice Tools and Tips | Psychopharmacology Tips | PTSD

In 2011, we wrote a review of medications for PTSD in children and found, unfortunately, that data to inform true evidence-based practice was scant. There are still no psychotropic medications that have been proven effective in randomized controlled trials for children with PTSD and there are no FDA approved medications for this population. Nonethele

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Expert Q&A

Trauma Systems Therapy

Topics: Antidepressants | Anxiety Disorder | Child Psychiatry | Practice Tools and Tips | Psychopharmacology Tips | Psychotherapy | PTSD

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Article

Using Psychiatric Biomarkers in your Practice

Topics: Addiction | Diagnostic Testing | Genetics and Psychiatry | Laboratory Testing in Psychiatry | Practice Tools and Tips

Treatment of the psychiatric patient is as much an art as it is a science. Diagnosing and deciding on treatments in psychiatry is based on a series of human interactions. We observe and we listen to patients, we ask questions, we consider their responses, and we synthesize all this information in order to render a judgment. Such judgments are subjective

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Expert Q&A

How to Evaluate the Methodology of Biomarker Studies

Topics: Addiction | Genetics and Psychiatry | Laboratory Testing in Psychiatry | Practice Tools and Tips

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Article

Computer Assisted Psychiatry: An Introduction and Road Test

Topics: Cognitive Behavioral Therapy | Computers in Psychiatric Practice | Practice Tools and Tips | Psychotherapy

There are plenty of ways that we use technology in psychiatric practice these days—including e-prescribing, electronic health records, referring patients to websites for psychoeducation, etc. But when was the last time you referred a patient to their computer for psychotherapy? Well, it may be time to consider it. First, let’s define some terms.

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Expert Q&A

Ordering Toxicology Screening: Clinical Tips

Topics: Diagnostic Testing | Laboratory Testing in Psychiatry | Practice Tools and Tips

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Expert Q&A

Becoming a Top-Performing Clinician

Topics: Practice Tools and Tips | Psychotherapy

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Article

How to Use The ASAM Criteria in Your Practice

Topics: Free Articles | Practice Tools and Tips

The ASAM Criteria—the American Society of Addiction Medicine’s guidelines for addiction treatment—are not just a tool for program administrators and insurance bureaucrats. They provide a useful conceptual framework for thinking about your patients and what kind of care they need. In addition, insurance companies and government agencies often requi

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Expert Q&A

REMS: What It’s All About

Topics: Practice Tools and Tips

By the Numbers: Prescription Opioid Addiction Healthcare providers wrote 259 million prescriptions for opioid analgesic medications in 2012, enough for every American adult to have a bottle of pills Enough prescription painkillers were prescribed in 2010 to medicate every American adult around-the-clock for a month Hawaii had the lowest pre

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Expert Q&A

Understanding The ASAM Criteria

Topics: Practice Tools and Tips

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Article

Maintenance of Certification: What You Need to Know

Topics: Practice Tools and Tips

Hello again, dear readers. I’m back from Washington, where I spent the last two and a half years working on health policy for the Pew Charitable Trusts. And while maintenance of certification (MOC) is not inherently the most scintillating of topics to inaugurate my return, it means a lot for me because I’m up for recertification myself in 2018 and I

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