Is telepsychiatry equivalent to face-to-face psychiatry? Results from a randomized controlled equivalence trial.

Objective: The use of interactive videoconferencing to provide psychiatric services to geographically remote regions, often referred to as telepsychiatry, has gained wide acceptance. However, it is not known whether clinical outcomes of telepsychiatry are as good as those achieved through face-to-face contact. This study compared a variety of clinical outcomes after psychiatric consultation and, where needed, brief follow-up for outpatients referred to a psychiatric clinic in Canada who were randomly assigned to be examined face to face or by telepsychiatry.

Apolipoprotein E polymorphism and response to electroconvulsive therapy.

The aim of this study was to determine whether the apolipoprotein E genotype differs in patients who respond or do not respond to electroconvulsive therapy (ECT). Inpatients, out-patients, and day-treatment patients who had received ECT comprised the study group. The 34 patients included met DSM-III-R criteria for affective or schizoaffective disorder.

Musical hallucinations: report of two unusual cases.

Two elderly patients with musical hallucinations are described. In the first case, the musical hallucinations were precipitated by the administration of benzodiazepines. The symptoms in the second case resembled those described in cases of visual hallucinosis (Charles Bonnet syndrome) in the elderly.

Hepatic aging as an etiological factor in the development of Alzheimer's disease.

Alzheimer's disease is a frequent cause of dementia in the elderly. The prevalence and incidence increase with aging. It is hypothesised that the age related decline in liver size and lysosomal function results in decreased clearance as well as decreased or altered proteolysis of the Alzheimer precursor protein, and results in the deposition of A4 protein in cerebral blood vessels and brain with congophilic angiopathy and senile/amyloid plaque formation.