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It’s no secret that SSRIs and SNRIs cause sexual dysfunction (SD) in a large proportion of patients who take them. The exact size of that proportion, though, is difficult to pinpoint with any reliability. Most of the large clinical trials of antidepressants ascertain side effects through spontaneous reports, and research subjects are understandably embarrassed about coming out and complaining about sexual problems.

As clinicians, we need to fully understand the importance of side effects for our patients. The most important problem in psychopharmacology is that patients stop taking their medication sooner or later. And what is the most frequent single reason for their stopping the medication? Side effects. In this interview, Dr. Rajnish Mago discusses important strategies for discussing side effects with patients.

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.

Saunas and hot tubs are pleasant and “therapeutic” for most of us, so it may be no surprise that scientists are trying to turn such experiences into psychiatric treatments. Whole-body hyperthermia (WBH) is a treatment that has long been used as an effective adjunct for treatment of certain kinds of cancers, and recently researchers have been testing it for depression.

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These days, opiates are primarily prescribed to treat pain. But there is a long history of using opiates to treat depression and other mental illness. Starting in the 700s, Arabian cultures used opium in mental hospitals in Baghdad, Damascus, Fez, and Cairo that also incorporated milieu therapy such as music,...