Objective: Multifamily group (MFG) psychotherapy is widely used for mental and general medical conditions. MFG therapy engages family members in caring for a loved one experiencing illness and helps clarify the impact of illness on family. Use of MFG therapy for patients with nonepileptic seizures (NES) and their families to explore satisfaction with treatment and family functioning is described.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAs Vice Chair of Clinical Services of Psychiatry at the University of Colorado, I choose to work where clinical services need most attention. As a woman, I want to show up where we can be seen and show up in the best possible way. Just as COVID began, I found myself doing clinical shifts in the newly created psychiatry emergency room.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBr J Psychiatry
October 2021
Expressed emotion (EE) is a highly researched psychosocial construct. Cultural research challenges the assumption that high family criticism is a universal determinant of poor outcome, especially for chronic illness. The concept of warmth, an original component of EE, was dropped owing to the complexity of its measurement.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFA high percentage of patients presenting to epilepsy centers have a functional neurological disorder with apparent seizures, ultimately diagnosed as nonepileptic seizures (NES). Meta-analyses suggest that psychological treatment is required, but this treatment is not reliably available, resulting in reentry of these patients to neurology clinics and urgent care settings, reducing access for these services to patients with epilepsy and resulting in inadequate psychological care for patients with NES. A sustainable, group therapy-focused treatment clinic for patients with NES was developed as a combined effort between the departments of neurology and psychiatry at the University of Colorado Hospital, consisting of a full psychiatric evaluation, a five-week psychoeducational group, a 12-week psychodynamic therapy group, individual therapy, medication management, and family assessment.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAm J Psychiatry
September 2018
Gen Hosp Psychiatry
July 2019
Donating a kidney to a stranger is known as a Good Samaritan, altruistic, or non-directed donation. Living donation is the only instance in medicine where the "do-no-harm" dictum is intentionally violated. Healthcare professionals 'doing the harm' are ethically responsible to ensure the lowest risk for both the physical and psychological health of the potential donor.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFUnlabelled: ABSTRACTObjective:Demoralization is a common problem among medical inpatients with such serious health problems as cancer. An awareness of this syndrome, a knowledge of what defines it, and a plan for how to intervene are limited among nursing teams. Nurses are uniquely poised to efficiently provide brief interventions that address demoralization in their patients.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIn the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the unspoken fear of syphilis played a significant role in the development of beliefs about female sexuality. Many women were afraid of sexual relationships with men because they feared contracting syphilis, which was, at that time, untreatable. Women also feared passing this disease on to their children.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAlthough family research supports family-centered care for all medical specialties, the benefit of family-centered care has not been fully realized in outpatient practice. Physicians, including psychiatrists, are not routinely taught how to work with families and may not be aware of the evidence-base for family interventions. However, some medical specialties, such as family medicine and palliative care, have a clinical practice that routinely includes the family.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAcad Psychiatry
December 2011
Objective: Problem-based learning (PBL) has been implemented in medical education world-wide. Despite its popularity, it has not been generally considered useful for residency programs. The author presents a model for the implementation of PBL in residency programs.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFJ Psychiatr Pract
September 2010
Good marital quality (MQ) is associated with better outcomes in many medical illnesses, especially for women. However, improved outcome is only apparent when MQ is measured across a range of marital functioning and when it is statistically described as either good or poor functioning. This article describes the biological processes that have been shown to underlie this relationship and reviews the influence of MQ on patient outcomes in cardiovascular disease.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAcad Psychiatry
January 2010
Objective: The authors assessed medical student attitudes regarding mistreatment and symptoms of posttraumatic stress in those students who reported exposure to mistreatment.
Methods: Third- and fourth-year medical students (N=71) responded to questions from a vignette in which a student is mistreated and then described any mistreatment they had witnessed or experienced. They also discussed related symptoms of posttraumatic stress subsequent to the mistreatment.
Objective: Because family oriented patient care improves patient outcome and reduces family burden, clinical family skills of communication, assessment, alliance, and support are part of core competencies required of all residents. Teaching residents to "think family" as part of core competencies and to reach out to families requires change in the teaching environment.
Methods: This article advocates teaching residents family skills throughout the training years as an integrated part of routine patient care rather than in isolated family clinics or a course in "family therapy.
Objective: This article will explore the possible reasons for gender differences found in self-disclosure in psychotherapy supervisors.
Method: Trainees and supervisors in the Brown University Department of Psychiatry and Human Behavior completed a questionnaire that asked about the appropriateness of the actions of a psychotherapy supervisor.
Results: On three items, male and female supervisors differed significantly in their perceptions of appropriate boundaries.
Objective: The Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education and the Residency Review Committee for psychiatry outline the expected competencies for residents. These competencies include working with families. This article describes barriers that residents face when working with families, and offers ways to overcome these barriers.
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