Some smaller studies have shown that risperidone is useful as an adjunctive treatment for PTSD. But, in a larger-scale study with nearly 300 veterans, the medication used as an adjunct did not outperform placebo. To further explore the utility of atypical antipsychotics, researchers randomly assigned 80 VA patients with PTSD to monotherapy with placebo or quetiapine.

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Dr. Patrick Gariety shares his experiences as a treatment clinician working in a facility with about 300 psychiatric patients, staffed with five psychiatrists and eight psychologists. The psychiatric population was extremely mixed, with most of the patients suffering from some form of chronic mental illness, and/or severe personality disorders.

Previous studies have shown that children who are bullied or who bully others are at higher-than-normal risk to have psychiatric disorders as adults. It’s tempting to blame the bullying—but it’s possible that the development of adult problems was driven not by bullying, but rather by preexisting psychiatric disorders in childhood.

Nearly one in three foster children have significant psychiatric problems during their time in foster care—especially those related to trauma and neglect that brought them into the system. This article is a brief primer on how foster care works, and how psychiatrists get involved.

In response to the rising use of psychotropic medications in Medicaid and foster care populations, some states, including California, have implemented specific guidelines. This article covers those guidelines with case examples.

Investigative journalist Karen de Sá wrote a series for the San Jose Mercury News called “Drugging Our Kids” about medication treatment of foster children. She found that almost one in four foster children between 12 and 17 were receiving a psychotropic of some kind, and 62% were receiving an antipsychotic. Her reporting spurred the California legislature to pass several laws designed to discourage the excessive use of psychotropics in foster children.

In 2011, we wrote a review of medications for PTSD in children and found, unfortunately, that data to inform true evidence-based practice was scant. There are still no psychotropic medications that have been proven effective in randomized controlled trials for children with PTSD and there are no FDA approved medications for this population.

Learn about Trauma Systems Therapy (TST) and its use with young patients in an interview with Glenn Saxe, MD, Arnold Simon professor and chair, Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, and director, the Child Study Center.

Transient ischemic attacks (TIAs)—commonly referred to as “mini-strokes”—don’t leave people with any permanent neurological symptoms, but in some individuals they may lead to post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) for the event, according to a new study.