Assessing the Need for Hospitalization in Order to Conduct a Psychiatric Evaluation as part of Criminal Law Procedure.

Background: In criminal law, psychiatrists are consulted regarding the "insanity defense" and the defendant's competency to stand trial. Court-ordered hospital admissions for such evaluations are on the increase, creating a major burden on the health system.

Objectives: To assess, in a hospital setting, whether hospitalization of the defendant is necessary for conducting a psychiatric evaluation.

Prevention of recurrent postpartum depression a reasonable option?

Clinical Dilemma: A 27-year-old woman is in the 32nd week of her second pregnancy. After her first childbirth she suffered from postpartum depression (PPD) and was successfully treated with an antidepressant. Since then she has been asymptomatic.

Diminished neural sensitivity to irregular facial expression in first-episode schizophrenia.

Introduction: Blunted, inappropriate affective-social behavior is a hallmark of early schizophrenia, possibly corresponding to reduced ability to recognize and express emotions. It is yet unknown if this affective deficiency relates to disturbed neural sensitivity to facial expressions or to overall face processing. In a previous imaging study, healthy subjects showed less suppression of the fusiform gyrus (FG) to repeated presentation of the same transfigured-bizarre face relative to regular face.

[The minimental state examination--an up-to-date review].

The Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) was developed in 1975 as a brief test for the quantitative assessment of cognitive impairment in adults. It has since been widely used by physicians throughout the world. Its main use is for screening for cognitive impairment, which is a significant cause of morbidity and mortality in the elderly.