Caffeine permeates our society. It comes in many forms, including coffee and increasingly popular energy drinks. We consume it, and so do our patients. So, is it a harmless habit or a potentially harmful addiction? Let’s take a sip and find out.

Opioid use disorder (OUD) treatment can be tricky, in part because it doesn’t respond well to detox and counseling-only approaches. The overwhelming majority of people relapse after such attempts, or even become more vulnerable to overdose because of decreased tolerance after detoxing.

Repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) has been FDA-approved for treatment-resistant depression (TRD) since 2008. This non-invasive therapy uses an electromagnetic coil to stimulate electrical activity in the frontal cortex.

Our patients typically tell us that, according to the internet, weed is perfectly safe and does not affect their ability to think or function. Thirty states and the District of Columbia have laws legalizing cannabis, supporting the notion that people have begun to think of marijuana as relatively harmless.

What can you do—beyond prescribing medications—to help your patients who have suicidal ideation? There are many strategies that you can teach your patients, even in the context of brief psychopharm visits.

Patients often ask how their stimulant medication interacts with food. Can you tell us more about this?

Rising rates of opioid overdose deaths have sounded alarm bells over opioid prescribing practices for chronic pain. Unfortunately, and despite the absence of quality data on their risks vs benefits, long-term opioid management has remained a common approach to managing chronic musculoskeletal pain.

These guidelines have been adapted with permission from the 10 Commandments for Safety by Avrim Fishkind, MD.

What can you do when one of your patients reports being bullied? Research has shown that being bullied increases the risk of depression, anxiety, and suicidality in children. In this article, we’ll give you some tips for how to ask about bullying, how to assess its impact, and how to help your patients and their families deal with the problem.

In this month’s interview with Dr. Eric Hermes, we learned about his approach to treating insomnia in patients with substance use disorders, with a focus on cognitive behavioral therapy. In this article, we’ll look at some non-addictive pharmacological options.