After reading these articles, you should be able to…

Most psychiatrists rely on the Folstein Mini Mental State Exam for a rapid, office-based neuropsychological assessment. But the MMSE has some serious limitations. A hot new test, called the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) appears to work much better.

Psychiatric conditions are easy to fake, because there are no truly objective tests for their diagnoses. The prevalence of malingered PTSD symptoms is hard to assess. The actual prevalence of ADHD malingering has never been formally studied, but the high rate of stimulant diversion on college campuses implies that the problem is significant.

Tamoxifen, an estrogen blocker that is approved for the treatment of breast cancer, successfully treated patients with mania in a placebo-controlled trial.

A few studies have shown that orally disintegrating Zyprexa Zydis appears to cause less weight gain than standard Zyprexa, but they have been short term studies.

The FDA now requires antidepressant drug makers to carry black box warnings about an increased risk of suicidality in children and young adults.

To begin, Dr. Woo, what sort of training does a neuropsychologist have?

After reading these articles, you should be able to…

After many years of trying, Wyeth finally received FDA approval for its new antidepressant, Pristiq (desvenlafaxine). Don’t get too excited, though – Pristiq is simply the active metabolite of Effexor and it’s unclear whether it adds anything of value to our current quiver of antidepressants.

We typically warn our patients about common side effects, such as headache, GI distress and sexual dysfunction when we start SSRIs. Here are some of the side effects that we don’t necessarily talk to patients about, but should be able to recognize and discuss in particular contexts.