Screening for Complicated Grief in a Military Mental Health Clinic.

Introduction: Bereavement is one of the most common and stressful life experiences one can endure. Typical grief reactions follow a course of recovery in which individuals come to terms with the loss and resume functioning within weeks to months. However, for some, grief remains indefinitely distressing.

Adding antidepressants to antipsychotics for treatment of subsyndromal depressive symptoms in schizophrenia: Impact on positive and negative symptoms.

Objectives: It remains unclear how augmenting anti-psychotic medications with anti-depressants impacts primary positive and negative symptoms of schizophrenia. In this study, we used data collected from a randomized trial comparing citalopram to placebo for management of subsyndromal depression (SSD) in schizophrenia and schizoaffective disorder, to assess the effects of antidepressant augmentation on positive and negative symptoms.

Materials And Methods: Participants in this study conducted at the University of California, San Diego and the University of Cincinnati, were persons with schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder aged 40 or older and who met study criteria for SSD.

Effectiveness of multimedia aids to enhance comprehension of research consent information: a systematic review.

We conducted a systematic review of empirical studies of the effectiveness of multimedia tools to enhance the research consent process. Relative to routine consent procedures, multimedia aided consent resulted in significantly better participant comprehension in 10 of 20 reviewed studies, and in six of the remaining studies multimedia aided consent resulted in superior comprehension or retention for some subgroups or for at least some key aspects of the disclosed material. The overall pattern of findings suggests that multimedia tools can be effective aids to the research consent process under some circumstances.

Incarceration among adults who are in the public mental health system: rates, risk factors, and short-term outcomes.

Objective: Incarceration of people with mental illness has become a major social, clinical, and economic concern, with an estimated 2.1 million incarcerations in 2007. Prior studies have primarily focused on mental illness rates among incarcerated persons.

Do psychiatry residents identify as psychotherapists? A multisite survey.

Background: Psychiatric training was once synonymous with learning psychotherapy, but current psychiatric trainees face many options for integrating psychopharmacology and psychotherapy into their future practices, including providing primarily medication-focused visits. We examined psychiatry residents' attitudes towards learning psychotherapy, practicing psychotherapy in the future, and overall identification as psychotherapists.

Methods: We surveyed residents from 15 US residency programs during 2006-2007.

Association of posttraumatic stress disorder with increased prevalence of metabolic syndrome.

Objective: Few studies have compared prevalence rates of metabolic abnormalities in antipsychotic-treated patients with different psychiatric disorders, including posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). In this study, we examined components of metabolic syndrome among middle-aged and older patients with psychiatric disorders.

Method: In the study, 203 outpatients older than 40 years and with psychotic symptoms that needed antipsychotic treatment were enrolled.

Adherence to antipsychotics among Latinos and Asians with schizophrenia and limited English proficiency.

Objectives: The authors examined data for 7,784 Latino, Asian, and non-Latino white Medi-Cal beneficiaries with schizophrenia to determine the relationship between patients' preferred language for mental health services--English, Spanish, or an Asian language--and their adherence to treatment with antipsychotic medications.

Methods: Data reflected 31,560 person-years from 1999 to 2004. Pharmacy records were analyzed to assess medication adherence by use of the medication possession ratio (MPR).

Psychotropic medication nonadherence among United States Latinos: a comprehensive literature review.

Objective: Psychotropic medication nonadherence is a major public health problem, but few studies have focused on Latinos. The authors systematically reviewed the literature on rates of and factors influencing antipsychotic, antidepressant, and mood stabilizer nonadherence among U.S.