Psychiatry & Mental Health

Medscape's Ask the Experts allows you to ask members of a panel of leading experts for advice or information. You also have the opportunity to share your own views and insights by clicking the "Discuss this" link at the top of each response.

• Smoking and Schizophrenia What evidence-based treatment improves insight? In what phase of the illness is such intervention best? What undesirable clinical effects can insight have?
  Ask the Experts, August 2007
• Insight and Schizophrenia What evidence-based treatment improves insight? In what phase of the illness is such intervention best? What undesirable clinical effects can insight have?
  Ask the Experts, August 2007
• State-of-the-art Treatment for Negative Symptoms of Schizophrenia What are primary negative symptoms? How can you treat them? What are secondary negative symptoms and what 3 factors are responsible for them? How can you treat secondary negative symptoms?
  Ask the Experts, July 2007
• Lithium and Hair Loss What can you do if your patient's thyroid test results are normal, but she is losing her hair? Why? If that option does not work, what other choices do you have?
  Ask the Experts, July 2007
• Antipsychotics and Diabetes Which antipsychotics have the best metabolic profile? What should you do if your patient develops new-onset diabetes after taking antipsychotics? How can you best manage diabetes?
  Ask the Experts, June 2007
• Antidepressant Withdrawal Mania as a Predictor of Bipolarity What is antidepressant withdrawal mania? What medications may be associated with this phenomenon and why? Does antidepressant withdrawal mania predict bipolarity?
  Ask the Experts, June 2007
• Atypical Antipsychotics and Bipolar Disorder Are olanzapine, quetiapine, ziprasidone, aripiprazole, and risperidone mood stabilizers? For how long can these atypical antipsychotics prevent relapses? When are relapses most likely to occur?
  Ask the Experts, April 2007
• Distinguishing Bipolar From Unipolar Depression How can you recognize the depressed patient who is at increased risk for development of bipolar disorder? Here are some practical tips.
  Ask the Experts, April 2007
• Bipolar Depression Why is it seemingly more difficult to treat bipolar depression than bipolar mania? Why does it seem so hard to get the FDA to approve medications for bipolar depression?
  Ask the Experts, February 2007
• New Methods for the Administration of Psychiatric Medication How has the pharmacokinetic profile of some pills improved? What old drugs may be reformulated for lingual or nasal administration? What new techniques minimize metabolism by liver enzymes?
  Ask the Experts, January 2007
• The New "Blue Light" Intervention for Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) How does light therapy work? What are its strengths and weaknesses? What 2 promising alternatives affect the circadian systems that mediate response to bright full-spectrum light?
  Ask the Experts, January 2007
• Clozapine in Schizophrenia How many patients do not respond adequately to antipsychoptics? When should clozapine be used to treat them? What is an adequate dose? What should you do if a patient does not respond to that dose?
  Ask the Experts, November 2006
• Improving Adherence to Antidepressant Medication What 4 strategies can you use to improve adherence among your patients with depression?
  Ask the Experts, September 2006

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