Although studies have demonstrated the effectiveness of contingency management (CM) for illicit drug use, there’s less evidence for treatment of alcoholism—in part because a standard breathalyzer has a short detection window of 12 hours, meaning patients must only abstain from drinking since the previous night to pass the test.

NeuroStar just announced that the FDA has cleared an updated version of its TMS system. Called the NeuroStar Advanced Therapy System, its primary claim to fame is that patients can receive a full TMS treatment in only 19 minutes, as opposed to the 40 minutes required with NeuroStar’s original system.

We often prescribe antidepressants to patients who are suicidal, and unfortunately, some people use these very medications to try to kill themselves. It’s been known for some time that tricyclic antidepressants are among the most toxic in overdose, so we embraced the SSRIs and later medications in part because they are considered to be safer. But how safe are they?

PANS and PANDAS--a hitherto normal child suddenly develops severe OCD symptoms. These may include refusing to leave the house, engaging in constant checking and washing rituals, asking repeatedly if the door is locked, making odd facial movements, having full-on tantrums with kicking and screaming, wetting the bed, and being unable to perform in school. “I lost my child overnight” was, and is, a common refrain.

Do antidepressants cause bipolar II patients to switch from depression to hypomania? It’s a controversial question, and you’ll find academic psychiatrists who will argue passionately that antidepressants are either safe or dangerous in these patients. The latest study appears to endorse the “safe” camp.

Given how many essentially equivalent medications we have to choose from, how great would it be to have a test that tells us which drug to prescribe for which patient? Everybody wants personalized medicine, and in some other specialties, such as oncology, this is becoming a standard part of treatment. In this article, we’ll review some of the basics of pharmacogenetic testing and examine in more detail the commercial genetic tests that are currently available.