After reading these articles, you should be able to…

Of all the factors that contribute to mood, hormonal variations, such as those found in premenstrual syndrome (PMS) and premenstrual dysphoric disorder (PMDD) can have a particularly strong effect. I’ve heard some people, for instance, describe PMS as a “powerful spell” that women are put under once every month.

Dr. Madeleine Becker explains the many considerations in in treating psychiatric illness in pregnant and lactating women.

Many people claim that meditation helps them reduce stress, anxiety, or depression, but little quality evidence exists to support those anecdotes. Add to that the difficulty in designing a controlled trial of meditation—eg, how can people be blinded to their treatment group?—and it’s hard to know how to counsel patients on the effectiveness of this strategy.

Schizophrenia, a condition that is thought to affect 1% of the world’s population, remains one of the most challenging psychiatric disorders to treat.

Roche Pharmaceuticals’ potential new medication for schizophrenia, bitopertin (RG1678), failed its first two phase III trials. In both trials, adding bitopertin to antipsychotics for 24 weeks failed to improve persistent negative symptoms of schizophrenia as measured by PANSS (Positive and Negative Symptoms Scale) scores when compared to placebo, according to a report released by the company in January.

Johnson & Johnson will begin providing all clinical trial data gathered through its Janssen pharmaceuticals arm to Yale School of Medicine’s Open Data Access (YODA) Project. Physicians and researchers will be able to request access to the anonymized data through YODA, and not the drug company.

A January 2014 report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says that alcohol screening and brief counseling by physicians can significantly reduce weekly alcohol consumption and binge-drinking episodes, but that only one in six people has ever talked with their doctor or other health professional about alcohol use.

After reading these articles, you should be able to…

Some people with serious mental illness suffer from cognitive problems, such as not being able to process information quickly, concentrate, or remember new information. While some psychiatric medications have cognitive effects, it’s now understood that the mental illnesses themselves can cause much of the cognitive dysfunction.Cognitive dysfunction is a primary...