Three-year changes in adult risk drinking behavior in relation to the course of alcohol-use disorders.
NUMEROUS STUDIES HAVE EXAMINED changes in volume and pattern of drinking over the life course, with most focusing on the heavy drinking trajectories from adolescence to early adulthood (Chassin et al., 2002; Hill et al., 2000; Oesterle et al., 2004; Schulenberg et al., 1996; Tucker et al., 2003; Windle...

Beating the blues: new approaches are lifting the veil of melancholy for millions of Americans.
For as long as he could remember, Frank de Falco lived with a mild melancholy. Like background noise, it was there but he'd never thought much of it until the birth of his first child in 1995, when he began to consider what he wanted to be like as...

Arthritis linked with mental conditions.
Significant correlations have been found between arthritis and depression, anxiety, and other mental illnesses by researchers at the American Pain Society, Glenview, Ill. Their study sampled U.S. adults who completed the Alcohol Use Disorder and Associated Disabilities Interview Schedule, which includes reports about arthritis and related chronic medical conditions....

Deep brain stimulation eases Tourette syndrome.
CHICAGO -- Deep brain stimulation of limbic relays within the basal ganglia circuitry reduced tic severity in patients with Tourette syndrome, according to data from a small double-blind, randomized crossover study. In three patients with severe and medically refractory Tourette syndrome, researchers applied high-frequency bilateral deep brain...

New facilities bring new career opportunities: forensic mental health nursing is highly skilled and challenging, and demand for the specialty is growing, write Natalie Cutler (Nurse Manager Mental Health) and Julia Shaw (Operational Nurse Manager) at the new Long Bay Forensic Hospital.
Forensic mental health (FMH) nurses assess and treat adults and adolescents with mental illness who have come into contact with the criminal justice system. In mid July 2008, the new Long Bay Prison Hospital opened 40 mental health inpatient beds to replace the recently demolished prison hospital....

Sham peer review: perversions of a powerful process.
Sham peer review distorts the medical staff's quality assurance system via "peer review." Formal, informal and punitive sanctions are accomplished, in bad faith, but disguised to appear as if the actions were legitimate. It is peer review ostensibly about one thing but really about something else. Participating...

Personality disorders in intellectual disability: approaches to pharmacotherapy.
Though contentious, the diagnosis of personality disorders in intellectual disability is clinically relevant. Psychotropic medication is widely prescribed in this population. The clinical approach to prescribing is based on tackling the distressing symptoms. Using the findings of an audit on pharmacotherapy in personality disorder, this paper explores the target...