Anecdotally, adding an atypical antipsychotic to an antidepressant is a common practice for achieving a response in patients who have failed several medication trials. Do the data support this use of atypical antipsychotics?

To begin with, Dr. Friedman, I’d like to start with the diagnosis of PTSD. Given that patients sometimes come to us for disability evaluations and therefore have a secondary gain for getting the PTSD diagnosis, do you have any good tips for how we can be sure that we are making the proper diagnosis?

After reading these articles, you should be able to…

There is a strange disconnect between what we psychiatrists do in daily practice and what official antidepressant treatment guidelines recommend. Treatment guidelines typically say, essentially, that all antidepressants are equal in efficacy, but real psychiatrists have strong personal preferences, based on some combination of the scientific literature, the advice of experts, our clinical experience, and perhaps even the personalities of the last drug reps we saw in the office.

Pristiq (desvenlafaxine extendedrelease tablet) was approved by the FDA in February of 2008 for the treatment of major depression.

Everybody knows that chamomile tea is calming, or at least is supposed to be. But it had never been tested in a placebo controlled study, until now. A recent trial compared chamomile capsules to placebo in the treatment of 57 patients with mild to moderate generalized anxiety disorder.

The treatment of adolescent depression has stirred much controversy in recent years. Many have raised doubts about the efficacy of both antidepressants and psychotherapy, and whether medications increase the risk of treatment-emergent suicidality is a divisive issue.

Dr. Turner and his colleagues published a paper entitled “Selective Publication of Antidepressant Trials and Its Influence on Apparent Efficacy.” It caused quite a stir in the field. Here, he explains his findings.

After reading these articles, you should be able to…

We know that headaches are common in the general population, but they are particularly common among patients with psychiatric problems. According to one review, (Pompili M et al., J Headache Pain 2009; 10(4):283-290) patients with depression have a 46% lifetime prevalence of migraine, while bipolar patients have a 51% prevalence. Patients with migraines have triple the risk of developing depression than patients without migraines.