Texas state legislators recently passed a bill that will greatly reduce the prior authorization workload. Will this open the door to the rest of the country?

Does the limited research support that oxcarbazepine is a safer and more effective treatment for bipolar disorder than its FDA-approved cousin, carbamazepine? Here is an overview of the pros and cons from a previous article in The Carlat Psychiatry Report.Pros:Similar effectiveness as other mood stabilizers. In mania and mixed states,...

Which antipsychotics should we consider selecting as the first-line and second-line treatments, and what should we base this decision on? Dr. Aziz addresses this in a past article from The Carlat Psychiatry Report. Here’s some of his advice:Process: Tolerability instead of efficacy should be considered when selecting a first-line treatment.

Ketamine and esketamine have been shown to provide rapid relief of suicidality, however, many lingering doubts have been raised about these medicines. In a previous article from The Carlat Psychiatry Report, Nolan Williams, M.D., discusses the potential negative consequences of ketamine/esketamine treatment. Here are some of Dr. Williams’s tips:It might...

Many mental health apps can be problematic “because most of the apps that are available are poorly designed and lack research support.” Dr. Torous discusses these apps in an article from The Carlat Psychiatry Report. Here is some of his advise:Assessing Mental Health Apps: Privacy. Determine if the app has...

Gastric hypomotility is a common clozapine side effect that can develop into the potentially lethal condition of paralytic ileus. Dr. Aiken’s covered these risks in The Carlat Psychiatry Report. Here’s what you need to know.Dangers of Paralytic Ileus: Hypomotility is very common. Clozapine is the worst offender out of any...

There’s good reason to be careful prescribing Z-drugs. Here’s an overview of Dr. Reban Aziz’s recent article in The Carlat Addiction Treatment Report.Safety Tips Go short-term or intermittent to reduce the potential for adverse events and withdrawal. Avoid for SUD or complex sleep disorders.  Use as last resort after considering...

There’s been some promising research for Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS), but can it be used for treatment-resistant depression in children and adolescents? Here’s a summary of the pros and cons presented in this 2019 article in The Carlat Child Psychiatry Report. Pros:It seems to work. An open-label trial of TMS for...

Linda Chokroverty, MD, is the attending physician at the Montefiore Health Systems in Bronx, NY; Clinical Assistant Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences and Pediatrics at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine; and Co-Chair of the Disaster and Trauma Issues Committee with the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry.