BACKGROUND Mental illness is a significant contributor to the global burden of disease, with prevalence highest in low- and middle-income countries. Rates are high in women of childbearing age, especially during pregnancy and the first year post-partum. Migrant and refugee populations are at risk of developing mental illness due to the multiple stressors associated with migration. The Thai-Myan...

IN THE FIRST 2010 ISSUE OF NATURE, THE EDITOR, PHILIP Campbell, suggested that the next 10-year period is likely to be the “decade for psychiatric disorders.” This was not a prediction of an epidemic, although mental illnesses are highly prevalent, nor a suggestion that new illnesses would emerge. The key point was that research on mental illness was, at long last, reaching an inflection point ...

The lack of ability to empathize is central to many psychiatric conditions. Empathy (or social cognition) is probably affected by several factors, such as neurodevelopmental problems, brain damage and the onset of psychiatric illness. It is also amenable to manipulation and can be measured by neuropsychological assessment (both state and trait) and neuroimaging techniques. This book focuses spe...

Prepared for Stigma in Mental Health: Interventions to Reduce the Burden, J. ArboledaFlorez and H. Stuart (eds.) John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Based on a presentation at the World Psychiatric Association International Congress, October 2006, Istanbul. We acknowledge support from the Fogarty International Center, the National Institute of Mental Health and the Office of Behavioral and Social Science R...

he word " Stigma " comes from the Greek word " stizen " which means to tattoo or to brand. In ancient Greece, they branded or cut into the flesh of slaves or criminals so that others could identify them as less-valued members of society. Broadly speaking " stigma " is a negative evaluation of a person tainted or discredited on the basis of attributes such as mental disorder or mental illness, r...

Smoking increases metabolism of different medications including some antidepressants (tricyclics and mirtazapine), antipsychotics (clozapine, olanzapine and haloperidol) [14], some benzodiazepines and opiates.[15] This can result in significantly lower plasma levels [12] and therefore, larger doses are required for a similar therapeutic effect. However, following smoking cessation, doses of the...

BACKGROUND Psychiatric patients carry the additional burden of stigma. METHODS The views of 300 psychiatric out-patients and day-patients and 100 mental health workers concerning stigma were sought. The control group comprised 50 cardiac out-patients. RESULTS A fair proportion of patients with schizophrenia or depression perceived that stigma had a negative effect on their self-esteem, rela...

by Morris Carstairs. Woutledge & Kegan Paul, 28s.) In 1956 and 1957 from one London Borough one hundred and twenty inhabits were admitted to a Surrey mental hospital. Eighty-nine of these were traced, ar,d of the eighty-six who were interviewed, the basis for this book was formed. Despite an occasional awkwardness. Miss Mills presents in an eminently ^adable way the attitude of a group of ex-pa...

There exists a growing argument in favour of a more dimensional approach to the diagnosis and treatment of psychiatric patients. This encompasses first the idea of a spectrum of symptoms correlating to severity within a single disorder, and secondly, the idea of spectra of different disorders sharing overlapping collections of symptoms. Here we consider the issue in light of specific clinical e...

Recent large-scale registry and brain imaging studies are exploring the validity of this ancient observation, which linked creativity/genius and psychopathology. The results are mixed. Since the terms “genius” and “creativity” have different definitions, Psychiatric Times asked neuropsychologist and creativity expert Rex Jung, PhD, Assistant Professor in the Department of Neurosurgery, Universi...