Adherence to smoking cessation guidelines (5As) by psychiatrists and primary care physicians for persons with serious mental illness.

1) Compare the 5A (Ask-Advise-Assess-Assist-Arrange) practice rates between psychiatrists and primary care physicians (PCPs) regarding smoking cessation for PWSMI. 2) Compare the 5A practice rates reported by physicians with rates reported by PWSMI. 3) Identify which specialty is perceived as primarily responsible for smoking cessation promotion for PWSMI.

Comparison of Perceptions and Smoking Cessation Experiences Between Smokers With and Without Serious Mental Illness in a Large Health Maintenance Organization.

Objective: Smoking prevalence is threefold higher among people with serious mental illness (PWSMI) than in the general population, yet smoking cessation rates for PWSMI are lower. Numerous reasons have been posited as to why tobacco use is higher and abstinence rates are lower among PWSMI. This study explores smoking cessation perceptions and experiences among PWSMI and people without serious mental illness (SMI).

Comparison of Smoking Cessation Program Registration, Participation, Smoking Cessation Medication Utilization, and Abstinence Rates Between Smokers With and Without Schizophrenia, Schizo-affective Disorder, or Bipolar Disorder.

Introduction: People with serious mental illness (SMI) are three times more likely to smoke and be heavy smokers than smokers without SMI. Counseling combined with smoking cessation medication (SCM) is the recommended treatment. However, until 2017, SCM prescription for SMI smokers was discouraged (FDA black box warning).

The Impact of Smoking Cessation on Hospitalization and Psychiatric Medication Utilization among People with Serious Mental Illness.

Despite the high prevalence of smoking amongst people with serious mental illness (SMI), referral rates to smoking cessation programs (SCPs) are low. Mental health workers reticence to refer to SCPs has been attributed, in part, to their belief that quitting will have a deleterious effect on their patients' mental health status. This study's objective was to determine if participating in a smoking cessation program had an adverse effect on mental health status among people with SMI, measured here by a change in hospitalization occurrence or psychiatric medication utilization.

Ropinirole Augmentation for Depression: A Randomized Controlled Trial Pilot Study.

Objective: Evidence both from animal and human studies suggests a role for dopaminergic pathways in the treatment of depression. Ropinirole, a selective agonist of dopamine D2/D3, is in use for the treatment of parkinsonism. Preliminary evidence suggests that such agonists might be useful as antidepressants.

[Intrinsic motivation: a new direction of understanding and treatment of schizophrenia?].

While diagnosing schizophrenia, clinicians focus on feeling the quality and nature of the internal motivation of patients. This motivational quality was theoretically conceptualized by Self Determination Theory (SDT). In this article we will review some of the basics of this theory, which focuses on motivational variables assessing behavior on an internal-external axis.

Adherence to treatment with selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors and the risk for fractures and bone loss: a population-based cohort study.

Background: Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) are suspected of increasing the risk of bone loss and osteoporotic fractures.

Objective: The aim of this study was to investigate the association between adherence to SSRI treatment and the risk of bone loss-related events.

Methods: The data used in this retrospective cohort study are part of the ongoing medical documentation routinely collected in a large health maintenance organization in Israel.

A comparative study of Arab and Jewish patients admitted for psychiatric hospitalization in Jerusalem: the demographic, psychopathologic aspects, and the drug abuse comorbidity.

Background: The influence of ethnicity on different aspects of psychiatric hospitalization is far from clear.

The Aim Of The Study: The main aim of the study was to compare the Arab and the Jewish inpatients, at the time of admission, for the demographic factors, severity of psychotic, and affective psychopathology and comorbid drug abuse rate. POPULATION, METHOD, AND TOOLS: Among 250 consecutively admitted patients in the Jerusalem Mental Health Center-Kfar Shaul Hospital, 202 Jews and 42 Arabs (aged 18-65 years) were examined within 48 hours after admission.

A comparative study of psychiatric inpatients in a general hospital and a psychiatric hospital in Israel: demographics, psychopathological aspects and drug abuse patterns.

Background: Some specialists and policy makers advocate progression of the mental health reform in Israel by transferring beds from psychiatric to general hospitals.

Objectives: To compare the demographic, diagnostic and psychopathological profiles of psychiatric inpatients hospitalized in psychiatric and general hospitals, as well as their patterns of drug abuse, and to estimate the preparedness of general hospitals for the possible expansion of their psychiatric services.

Methods: Between 2002 and 2006 a total of 250 patients were consecutively admitted to the Jerusalem Mental Health Center-Kfar Shaul Hospital and 220 to the psychiatric department of Sheba Medical Center, a general hospital in central Israel; the patients' ages ranged from 18 to 65.

Cannabis abuse and severity of psychotic and affective disorders in Israeli psychiatric inpatients.

The influence of cannabis abuse on the severity of existing psychotic and affective symptoms is still unclear. Among 470 consecutively admitted psychotic or affective patients, 54 active (in the previous month) cannabis abusers were detected via urine tests (Sure Step TM kits; Applied Biotech Inc, San Diego, Calif) and Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV (SCID- IV) questionnaire. In 24 cases, substances other than cannabis were abused; 392 patients were nonabusers.

Repeated high-frequency transcranial magnetic stimulation over the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex reduces cigarette craving and consumption.

Aims: To evaluate the effect of repeated high-frequency transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) of the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC), combined with either smoking or neutral cues, on cigarette consumption, dependence and craving.

Design: Participants were divided randomly to real and sham stimulation groups. Each group was subdivided randomly into two subgroups presented with either smoking-related or neutral pictures just before the daily TMS intervention.

Substance abuse in hospitalized psychiatric patients.

Background: The co-morbidity rate of illicit substance abuse and major mental problems in Israel is far from clear.

Objectives: To investigate the extent of drug abuse in a sample of psychiatric patients hospitalized in a psychiatric hospital and in the psychiatric department of a general hospital in Israel, to compare demographic and other background factors in dual-diagnosis patients with those of abuse-free mental inpatients, and to examine the time correlation between drug abuse and the appearance of major mental problems.

Methods: Our data were derived from self-report and urine tests.

Major depression affects perceptual filling-in.

Background: Major depression disorder is a syndrome that involves impairment of cognitive functions such as memory, attention, and plasticity. In this study, we explored whether depression affects perception as well.

Methods: We used a recently developed paradigm that assesses the filling-in process by probing false-positive reports (false alarm [FA]), hit rates (pHit), sensitivity (d'), and decision criteria (Cr).

The effect of a series of repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulations of the motor cortex on central pain after spinal cord injury.

Objective: To study the analgesic effect of repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) of the motor cortex on central pain in patients with chronic spinal cord injury (SCI).

Design: Double-blind randomized controlled trial. Mean follow-up period was 4.

Predictors of antidepressant response in clinical trials of transcranial magnetic stimulation.

Although previous clinical trials have suggested that repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) has a significant antidepressant effect, the results of these trials are heterogeneous. We hypothesized that individual patients' characteristics might contribute to such heterogeneity. Our aim was to identify predictors of antidepressant response to rTMS.

Dopamine D2-like receptors and the antidepressant response.

Converging lines of evidence suggest a role for the mesolimbic dopamine system in the response to somatic antidepressant therapies. Here, we review evidence suggesting that antidepressant treatments of different types share the effect of increasing the sensitivity of dopamine D2-like receptors in the nucleus accumbens, clinical studies suggesting that activation of these receptors has antidepressant efficacy, as well as relevant imaging and genetic data on the role of this system in the antidepressant response. We then attempt to reconcile this data with evidence of a common target of antidepressant drugs in the cyclic adenosine monophosphate (cAMP) response element binding protein-brain-derived neurotrophic factor (CREB-BDNF) pathway in a model that suggests potential directions for future inquiry.

Effectiveness of sildenafil in treating erectile dysfunction in PTSD patients: a double-blind, placebo-controlled crossover study.

Objective: Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is known to be associated with Erectile Dysfunction (ED). Sildenafil citrate was shown to be effective treatment for ED among different clinical populations. However, to date, no placebo-controlled trial has assessed sildenafil's effectiveness for treating ED in PTSD patients.

Recurrence of panic disorder during pregnancy: a 7-year naturalistic follow-up study.

Objectives: The aim of this naturalistic follow-up study was to examine the effect of pregnancy as a predicting factor of relapse in patients with panic disorder (PD).

Methods: Eighty-five female patients with PD (between the ages of 20 and 35 years) were included in this study. They were divided into 2 groups based on whether the onset of PD had been during pregnancy (PD-pregnancy [PD-P]) or whether the onset of PD had been while not pregnant (PD-nonpregnant [PD-NP]).

Remifentanil supplementation of propofol during electroconvulsive therapy: effect on seizure duration and cardiovascular stability.

Objectives: Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) is standard treatment of severe depression. The induction of a seizure is a core event in successful ECT. Although propofol is a frequently used anesthetic agent, one of its limitations is a reduction of seizure duration.

Promethazine for the treatment of agitation after electroconvulsive therapy: a case series.

Objectives: Agitation after electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) is observed in approximately 7% of patients. Promethazine is an antihistamine with sedative properties that has no antiseizure effects and therefore can be administered before ECT to prevent the onset of agitation. In the current study, we present a series of 8 patients who reacted to ECT with severe agitation and improved under the treatment of promethazine.

Three year naturalistic outcome study of panic disorder patients treated with paroxetine.

Background: This naturalistic open label follow-up study had three objectives: 1) To observe the course of illness in Panic Disorder patients receiving long-term versus intermediate-term paroxetine treatment, 2) To compare the relapse rates and side-effect profile after long-term paroxetine treatment between patients with Panic Disorder and Panic Disorder with Agoraphobia, 3) To observe paroxetine's tolerability over a 24 month period.

Methods: 143 patients with panic disorder (PD), with or without agoraphobia, successfully finished a short-term (ie 12 week) trial of paroxetine treatment. All patients then continued to receive paroxetine maintenance therapy for a total of 12 months.

Cognitive behavioral group therapy in panic disorder patients: the efficacy of CBGT versus drug treatment.

The aim of our study was to evaluate the effectiveness of Cognitive Behavioral Group Therapy (CBGT) in the treatment of Panic Disorder (PD) and to compare the treatment outcome of CBGT versus Paroxetine pharmacotherapy. Fifty seven patients referred to our anxiety disorder clinic for the treatment of PD were randomly allocated to receive either CBGT or Paroxetine. Follow up was done by a masked rater after four and twelve weeks of treatment in order to compare the efficacy of CBGT versus Paroxetine.

Comorbid cannabis use and panic disorder: short term and long term follow-up study.

Objectives: The aim of the study was to compare the treatment of panic disorder in patients with or without cannabis use according to response, relapse and side effects.

Materials And Methods: 66 panic disorder (PD) patients were included in our study. All the subjects met the DSM-IV diagnosis of panic disorder (n=45) or panic disorder with agoraphobia (n=21).