Antipsychotics raise need for health checks.
BARCELONA -- More than 20% of patients taking antipsychotic medications for schizophrenia were at risk for diabetes, more than 30% had undiagnosed hyperlipidemia, and more than 50% had undiagnosed hypertension, a large European epidemiologic study has found. The findings drive home the need for continuous monitoring of...

The use of behavioral experiments to modify delusions and paranoia: clinical guidelines and recommendations.
Abstract Recently, there has been a renewed interested in the treatment of psychosis and it is now appears possible to modify specific symptoms of psychosis such as paranoia and delusions using methods derived from Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy. One specific technique that has received less attention is the use...

When good enough isn't.
With varying degrees of detail, the professional codes of ethics and standards of practice for licensed mental health professionals provide guidelines for when and how to terminate therapy with clients (American Association for Marriage and Family Therapists, 2001; American Counseling Association, 1996; American Psychological Association, 2002; National Association of...

The ghastly, ghostly residue of the gullible.
SPOOK: Science Tackles the Afterlife Mary Roach W.W. Norton, $24.95 Does the human soul exist, and if so, how much does it weigh? To find out, surgeon Duncan Macdougall devised a morbid experiment at the Consumptives' Home in Dorchester, Massachusetts, in April 1901. He placed a dying...

Executing the insane: a look at death penalty schemes in Arkansas, Georgia and Texas.
Faced with such widespread evidence of a restriction upon sovereign power, this Court is compelled to conclude that the Eighth Amendment prohibits a State from carrying out a sentence of death upon a prisoner who is insane. Whether its aim be to protect the condemned from fear and pain...

Cocaine-induced psychosis and schizophrenia.
The Problem You are working in an emergency department. A patient presents in an acutely psychotic state, but his urine drug screen is positive for cocaine. You have no prior records or knowledge of the patient. The Question Is it possible to differentiate...

Thomas Szasz takes on his critics: is mental illness an insane idea?
Szasz Under Fire: The Psychiatric Abolitionist Faces His Critics, edited by Jeffrey A. Schaler, Chicago: Open Court, 450 pages, $36.95 paper IN 1980 THOMAS Szasz testified for the prosecution in the trial of Darlin June Cromer, a 34-year-old white woman charged with kidnapping and murdering Reginald Williams,...

Overcoming the stigma: Richard Shrubb describes his battle with mental illness and perceptions.
I AM RUNNING toward the end of a media course in Cornwall, England. My tenancy in my student house is coming to an end, but nothing to worry about since a top news organisation has shown great interest in taking me on. Life rocks and the music is getting...

Hell House. (Short Takes).
"Hell House X: The Walking Dead" sounds like a movie sequel you'd rather skip, but it's really an event presented by the Trinity Church in Cedar Hill, Texas, a couple of years ago--the tenth edition of an annual extravaganza staged by local Pentecostals doing their bit to spotlight the...