Knowledge and Attitude Towards Pharmacological Management of Acute Agitation: A Survey of Psychiatrists, Psychiatry Residents, and Psychiatric Nurses.

Objective: The authors compared the current knowledge and attitude of psychiatrists, psychiatry residents, and psychiatric nurses towards the pharmacological management of acute agitation.

Methods: Questionnaires were electronically distributed to all attending psychiatrists, psychiatry residents, and psychiatric nurses who were either employed by the University Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences or were staff at a 250-bed affiliated Psychiatric Hospital. Where possible, Fisher's exact test was used to compare responses to questions based on designation.

Hospital length of stay in individuals with schizophrenia with and without cocaine-positive urine drug screens at hospital admission.

Despite the high prevalence of cocaine use disorder (CUD) in individuals with schizophrenia, current understanding of the effect of cocaine on psychiatric hospital length of stay (LOS) in individuals with schizophrenia is limited. We therefore retrospectively examined the medical records of 5106 hospital admissions due to exacerbation of schizophrenia. Linear regression and t-test were used to compare LOS between individuals with schizophrenia with cocaine-positive urine drug test results and those with negative test results.

Smoking and BDNF Val66Met polymorphism in male schizophrenia: a case-control study.

Some recent studies show an association between a functional polymorphism of BDNF gene (Val66Met) and the susceptibility to nicotine dependence and we hypothesized that this polymorphism was associated with smoking in both schizophrenia patients and healthy controls. The BDNF Val66Met gene polymorphism was genotyped in 690 chronic male schizophrenia patients (smoker/nonsmoker = 522/169) and 628 male controls (smoker/nonsmoker = 322/306) using a case-control design. Nicotine dependence (ND) was assessed by the cigarettes smoked per day (CPD), the Heaviness of Smoking Index (HSI), and the Fagerstrom Test for ND (FTND).

Third-year medical students' understanding, knowledge, and attitudes toward the use of electroconvulsive therapy: a pre-exposure and postexposure survey.

Objectives: The purpose of this study was to examine the impact of the third-year psychiatric clerkship at the University of Texas on medical students' perception about and attitudes toward electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) and to determine whether direct observation of the procedure by students impacts their attitudes differently than attendance of lectures only.

Methods: All third-year medical students were asked to complete a survey regarding their opinions about ECT before and after their third-year psychiatry rotation, and they were asked whether they received the required didactic ECT training alone or also received adjunctive observation training.

Results: The opinions of students in both groups (observed plus didactic vs didactic only) improved significantly from prerotation to postrotation.

Increasing the rate of return of resident rotation evaluations by their attending physicians in an in-patient psychiatric facility.

Objective: Psychiatrist's evaluations of residents are the primary means of determining whether the residents are ready to be promoted. However, the return rate for evaluations is quite low. The purpose of this study was to increase the return rates.

Is schizoaffective disorder a stable diagnostic category: a retrospective examination.

Debate continues about whether clear nosologic boundaries can be drawn between schizoaffective disorder (SA), schizophrenia (SP), and bipolar disorder (BPD). This study attempted to clarify these boundaries. A retrospective review of the records of adult psychiatric inpatients with DSM-IV diagnoses of SA (n = 96), SP (n = 245), and BPD (n = 203) was conducted.

Mixed versus manic bipolar disorder: a comparison of demographic, symptomatic, and treatment differences.

This study compared patients diagnosed with Mixed versus Manic Bipolar disorder across the domains of demographic, symptom, and treatment variables. The sample included 152 patients who were admitted to an acute care psychiatric facility within an index period, whose discharge diagnosis was either Bipolar Disorder, Manic Episode (n = 109) or Bipolar Disorder, Mixed Episode (n = 43). No significant differences were found in age, race, episode number, or length of stay.