A randomized trial of combined citalopram and naltrexone for nonabstinent outpatients with co-occurring alcohol dependence and major depression.

Despite the high rate of co-occurrence of major depression and alcohol dependence, the role of pharmacotherapy in their treatment remains unclear. In the new era of naltrexone for alcohol dependence, it is notable that only 1 study to date has examined the efficacy of antidepressant medication prescribed concurrently with naltrexone. We aimed to determine whether combining naltrexone with citalopram produced better treatment outcomes than naltrexone alone in patients with co-occurring alcohol dependence and depression, and to investigate whether either sex or depression type (independent or substance-induced depression) moderated treatment response.

Screening for alcohol misuse in elderly primary care patients: a systematic literature review.

Background: Alcohol problems in the elderly are common and frequently undetected, and therefore a potential target for a screening program.

Method: Using Medline, Psychinfo and reference lists from relevant publications, articles were identified testing pen-and-paper screens in the primary care population aged over 60 years.

Results: Using standard definitions of alcohol problems, conventional screens adapted for use in the elderly have performances similar to screens in the younger primary care population.

Heroes and villains: making sense of the history of psychiatry.

Objective: To review two seemingly contradictory accounts of the history of psychiatrists and psychiatry and outline some thoughts on integrating these differing views.

Method: The context of these two accounts is given in a brief overview of the historiography of medicine and psychiatry in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries with illustrative examples, in particular looking at the practically useful distinction between the traditional and social history of psychiatry.

Conclusions: Understanding how and why these two currents of psychiatric history differ allows one to derive and integrate useful insights from both.