psychiatrist

Specialty care costs for patients with bipolar disorder are higher than diabetes and other chronic diseases

SAN FRANCISCO -- Mayo Clinic researchers have found that bipolar disorder is more costly than other chronic conditions such as diabetes, depression, asthma or coronary artery disease. These findings are based on a review of health care claim costs. Specialty care costs (the costs of seeing any specialist and all tests ordered) were especially higher for bipolar patients.

Understanding the therapeutic process of mother-infant psychotherapy

(Boston) ? Psychotherapists who treat mothers suffering from postpartum depression and other mood disorders with their infants have developed a proven process that contributes to a greater positive experience with immediate insights for the mothers to develop healthy connections between their maternal experiences and their infants' behaviors.

Parkinson's disease medication triggers destructive behaviors

ROCHESTER, Minn. -- A new study conducted at Mayo Clinic reports that one in six patients receiving therapeutic doses of certain drugs for Parkinson's disease develops new-onset, potentially destructive behaviors, notably compulsive gambling or hypersexuality.

Latest Additions to the Science Shelf book review archive

February 6, 2009 by Fred Bortz

THE SCIENCE SHELF NEWSLETTER
News about the Science Shelf archive of book reviews, columns, and comments by Fred Bortz

Issue #29, Back from Hiatus edition, February 2009

Got OCD? Ask the animals

Almost three percent of all Americans suffer from Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD). But when do you cross the line between a neurotic compulsion to check your email every five minutes and mental illness? Ask the animals.

Is the Internet encouraging suicide pacts?

A disturbing new trend in suicide pacts involving strangers meeting over the internet (cybersuicide) is emerging, warns a consultant psychiatrist in this week's British Medical Journal. The deaths of nine people in Japan in October 2004, who met over the internet and planned the tragedy via special suicide websites, have brought the relatively rare phenomenon of suicide pacts into the limelight, writes Sundararajan Rajagopal. Traditional suicide pacts account for less than 1% of all suicides and almost always involve people well known to each other, mostly spouses, most of them childless. About half have psychiatric disorders and a third have physical illnesses.