Publications by authors named "Carl E Fisher"

Objective: This paper investigates how state-of-the-art generative artificial intelligence (AI) image models represent common psychiatric diagnoses. We offer key lessons derived from these representations to inform clinicians, researchers, generative AI companies, policymakers and the public about the potential impacts of AI-generated imagery on mental health discourse.

Methods: We prompted two generative AI image models, Midjourney V.

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Article Synopsis
  • Despite significant investments in public health, the opioid crisis continues to claim hundreds of thousands of lives, worsened by the spread of fentanyl, a potent synthetic opioid.
  • The National Institutes of Health's HEAL Initiative is exploring vaccine development aimed at inducing anti-fentanyl antibodies, which could potentially prevent overdose by stopping fentanyl from affecting the brain.
  • A conference at Harvard brought together experts from various fields to discuss the complex social and ethical factors surrounding the introduction of a fentanyl vaccine to better understand its potential impact and implementation challenges.
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Background: Civil commitment (CC) for substance use disorders (SUDs) is a legal mechanism, initiated by family members, healthcare professionals, or others, that compels individuals with substance use problems into involuntary treatment. With the recent rise of US overdose deaths, more states are considering these laws. Yet little is known about physicians' perspectives regarding CC in treating patients with SUDs.

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Electronic communications are an increasingly important part of people's lives, and much information is accessible through such means. Anecdotal clinical reports indicate that mental health professionals are beginning to use information from their patients' electronic activities in treatment and that their data-gathering practices have gone far beyond simply searching for patients online. Both academic and private sector researchers are developing mental health applications to collect patient information for clinical purposes.

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Background: Nicotine use has been reported to ameliorate symptoms of Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). Furthermore, adults with ADHD have a relatively high prevalence of cigarette smoking and greater difficulty abstaining from smoking. Overall, though, there is scant literature investigating the beliefs, perceptions and experiences of smokers with ADHD regarding smoking cessation and withdrawal.

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The American Psychiatric Association, ("APA"), with more than 36,000 members at present, is the Nation's leading organization of physicians who specialize in psychiatry. APA provides for education and advocacy and develops policy through Position Statements. It promotes enhanced knowledge of particular topics relevant to psychiatric practice and patient care through Resource Documents.

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The American Psychiatric Association, ("APA"), with more than 36,000 members at present, is the Nation's leading organization of physicians who specialize in psychiatry. APA provides for education and advocacy and develops policy through Position Statements. It promotes enhanced knowledge of particular topics relevant to psychiatric practice and patient care through Resource Documents.

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The National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) Improvement Amendments Act of 2007 encouraged states to create processes by which individuals who have lost their rights to firearm possession for mental-illness-related reasons could receive relief from restrictions. Over 20 states have created relief processes for this sub-group, but there still exists considerable state-by-state heterogeneity. The spectrum ranges from states that require a physician's opinion regarding appropriateness for restoration to those that rely solely on judicial proceedings without input from psychiatrists or other mental health professionals.

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Novel molecular interventions have recently shown the potential to erase, enhance and alter specific long-term memories. Unique features of this form of memory modification call for a close examination of its possible applications. While there have been discussions of the ethics of memory modification in the literature, molecular memory modification (MMM) can provide special insights.

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Mental illness in the criminal justice system is one of the most important and underserved public health challenges in psychiatry today, but few general psychiatry residency programs offer clinical education in correctional psychiatry. Developing such rotations might seem intimidating to educational leaders unfamiliar with the criminal justice system, but a variety of potential solutions exist for residency programs to offer this increasingly important clinical training.

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Background: Adult Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is associated with high rates of comorbid substance use disorders, and cigarette smoking has a particularly high prevalence in this population. However, there is an ongoing debate as to whether this tobacco use is an attempt at "self-medication" or due to behavioral disinhibition. There is a surprising lack of qualitative studies that investigate the subjective perceptions of adults with ADHD regarding cigarette smoking.

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Objective: Inconsistent performance measurement schemes hinder attempts to make international comparisons about mental health-care quality. This report describes a project undertaken by an international collaborative group that aims to develop a common framework of measures that will allow for international comparisons of mental health system performance.

Design: Representatives from each country submitted reports of quality measurement initiatives in mental health.

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Research on deep brain stimulation (DBS) for treatment-resistant depression appears promising, but concerns have been raised about the decisional capacity of severely depressed patients and their potential misconceptions about the research. We assessed 31 DBS research participants with the MacArthur Competence Assessment Tool for Clinical Research (MacCAT-CR), a well-validated capacity measure, and with a scale to measure therapeutic misconception, which occurs when subjects do not recognize key differences between treatment and clinical research. Correlations with baseline depressive symptoms were explored.

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Background: Body integrity identity disorder (BIID) is a rare and unusual psychiatric condition characterized by a persistent desire to acquire a physical disability (e.g., amputation, paraplegia) since childhood that to date has not been formally described in the psychiatric nosology.

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Neuromarketing has recently generated controversies concerning the involvement of medical professionals, and many key questions remain-ones that have potentially important implications for the field of psychiatry. Conflicting definitions of neuromarketing have been proposed, and little is known about the actual practices of companies, physicians, and scientists involved in its practice. This article reviews the history of neuromarketing and uses an exploratory survey of neuromarketing Web sites to illustrate ethical issues raised by this new field.

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In this paper, we review recent neuroimaging investigations of disorders of consciousness and different disciplines' understanding of consciousness itself. We consider potential tests of consciousness, their legal significance, and how they map onto broader themes in U.S.

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Though altruism and patient advocacy are promoted in medical education curricula, students are given few opportunities to develop these skills. Student-run clinics focusing on the health needs of the underserved can provide important health services to needy patients while providing students with career-influencing primary care experiences. The Columbia-Harlem Homeless Medical Partnership (CHHMP)-a project initiated by medical students to provide primary care to Northern Manhattan's homeless population-serves as a new model of service learning in medical education.

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