Epidemiology, Biostatistics, and Social Psychiatry
Epidemiology, Biostatistics, and Social Psychiatry What is a cohort study? A cohort study is a study that follows a group of subjects chosen from a well-defined population over an extended…
Psychometric and Neuropsychologic Testing
Psychometric and Neuropsychologic Testing What is the best psychologic test to use for assessing possible malingering? Arguably, the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI), since it has a built-in test detecting…
Psychosocial Theories and Behavioral Sciences
Psychosocial Theories and Behavioral Sciences What is attachment? Attachment is the emotional and behavioral dependence of an infant to its primary caregiver. It involves the senses of resources and security….
Impulse-control Disorders
Impulse-control Disorders Impulse-control disorders (ICD) is an as yet poorly understood grouping of seemingly related conditions, the symptoms of which overlap elements of many other conditions. They seem to have…
Legal Issues
Legal Issues The interface between psychiatry and law is in flux, partly because of recent patient’s rights legislation (based on the constitutional assurance that no person shall be deprived of…
The Elderly Patient
The Elderly Patient More than 35,000,000 Americans are older than 65: 85% have a chronic illness (usually medical), and 20% to 30% have a psychiatric illness (most common in the…
Biologic Therapy
Biologic Therapy ANTIPSYCHOTICS These are the “major tranquilizers” that revolutionized psychiatry by providing an effective treatment for large numbers of psychotic patients (1). Their antipsychotic effect is due not to…
The Psychotherapies
The Psychotherapies Dozens of different psychotherapies address innumerable different patient problems (1). With the possible exception of a few specific behavioral and cognitive-behavioral methods applied to several discrete problems, rigorous…
Mental Retardation
Mental Retardation There are 2 to 4 million mentally retarded persons in the United States (1% to 2% or more of population, depending on upper cutoff; M:F = 1.5:1; coded…
Personality Disorders
Personality Disorders Personality is a consistent style of behavior uniquely recognizable in each individual. Personality disorders (Axis II of DSM, p. 685) refers to personality characteristics of a form or…
