A comparison of outcomes including bile duct injury of subtotal cholecystectomy versus open total cholecystectomy as bailout procedures for severe cholecystitis: A multicenter real-world study.

Background: Dense inflammation obscuring the hepatocystic anatomy can hinder the ability to perform a safe standard laparoscopic cholecystectomy in severe cholecystitis, requiring use of a bailout procedure. We compared clinical outcomes of laparoscopic and open subtotal cholecystectomy against the traditional standard of open total cholecystectomy to identify the optimal bailout strategy for the difficult gallbladder.

Methods: A multicenter, multinational retrospective cohort study of patients who underwent bailout procedures for severe cholecystitis.

Risk factors for coercion length at psychiatric hospitals in Israel: Relationship with staff.

Background: Coercive interventions continue to be applied frequently in psychiatric care when patients are at imminent risk of harming themselves and/or others.

Aim: The purpose of this study was to demonstrate the relationship between the length of coercion and a variety of factors, including the sociodemographic background of patients, their diagnoses and the characteristics of hospital staff.

Methods: This is a one-year cross-sectional retrospective study, including records of 298 patients who underwent restraint and/or seclusion interventions in male acute, closed wards in two psychiatric hospitals in Israel.

Binocular properties of contrast adaptation in human vision.

Adaptation to contrast has been known and studied for 50 years, and the functional importance of dynamic gain control mechanisms is widely recognized. Understanding of binocular combination and binocular fusion has also advanced in the last 20 years, but aside from interocular transfer (IOT), we still know little about binocular properties of contrast adaptation. Our observers adapted to a high contrast 3.

Treatment of Clozapine-Associated Sialorrhea: The Role of Benzamide Derivatives.

Purpose: Hypersalivation is one of the most prevalent and distressing adverse effects associated with clozapine treatment. Currently, there is no standard therapeutic approach toward how to overcome it. Clinicians use various medications for managing this adverse effect.

Managing an Agent's Self-Presentational Strategies During an Interaction.

In this paper we present a computational model for managing the impressions of warmth and competence (the two fundamental dimensions of social cognition) of an Embodied Conversational Agent (ECA) while interacting with a human. The ECA can choose among four different self-presentational strategies eliciting different impressions of warmth and/or competence in the user, through its verbal and non-verbal behavior. The choice of the non-verbal behaviors displayed by the ECA relies on our previous studies.

Curcumin as Add-On to Antipsychotic Treatment in Patients With Chronic Schizophrenia: A Randomized, Double-Blind, Placebo-Controlled Study.

Background: Introduction of old and new generations of antipsychotics leads to significant improvements in the positive symptoms of schizophrenia. However, negative symptoms remain refractory to conventional trials of antipsychotic therapy. Recently, there were several open clinical human trials with curcumin.

Association between mental disorders, cognitive disturbances and vitamin D serum level: Current state.

Background & Aims: Vitamin D deficiency has been identified as a global problem. Approximately 14% of the world population has inadequate vitamin D levels. This vitamin has been usually associated with bone disorders such as rickets, osteomalacia, and osteoporosis.

Successful Use of Escitalopram for the Treatment of Visual Hallucinations in Patients With Parkinson Disease.

Introduction: Patients with Parkinson disease (PD) frequently experience visual hallucinations (VH). Visual hallucinations are most often viewed as an adverse effect of antiparkinsonian treatment. Possible treatments for this disturbance include a reduction of antiparkinsonian medications, adding atypical antipsychotics, or cholinesterase inhibitors.

Donepezil as Add-on Treatment for Resistant Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder: Retrospective Case Series.

Unlabelled: Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is one of the most common and disabling psychiatric disorders. Treatment with serotonin selective reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) shows significant improvement; however, residual symptoms remain in most patients despite continued adequate OCD treatment. For patients exhibiting partial or no response to multiple SSRIs, augmentation strategies are usually recommended.

Double-Blind, Randomized, Placebo-Controlled Trial of Metoclopramide for Hypersalivation Associated With Clozapine.

Hypersalivation is a frequent, disturbing, and uncomfortable adverse effect of clozapine therapy that frequently leads to noncompliance. The aim of this study was to examine the efficacy of metoclopramide (dopamine D2 antagonist, antiemetic medication) as an option for management of hypersalivation associated with clozapine (HAC). A 3-week, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial was conducted in university-based research clinics from January 2012 to May 2014, on 58 inpatients treated with clozapine who were experiencing hypersalivation.

Amisulpride as add-on treatment for resistant obsessive-compulsive disorder: retrospective case series.

Unlabelled: Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is one of the most common and disabling psychiatric disorders. Treatment with selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) shows significant improvement; however, residual symptoms remain in most patients despite continued treatment. For partial or nonresponding patients to multiple SSRIs, augmentation strategies are usually recommended.

Tardive dyskinesia (syndrome): Current concept and modern approaches to its management.

Tardive dyskinesia is a serious, disabling and potentially permanent, neurological hyperkinetic movement disorder that occurs after months or years of taking psychotropic drugs. The pathophysiology of tardive dyskinesia is complex, multifactorial and still not fully understood. A number of drugs were tried for the management of this motor disturbance, yet until now no effective and standard treatment has been found.

Curcumin as an add-on to antidepressive treatment: a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, pilot clinical study.

Objectives: Depression is a widespread mental disorder in which nearly half of the affected people have recurrent symptoms. Drug combinations may produce cumulative adverse effects, especially in elderly and physically ill patients. It was demonstrated that curcumin possesses antidepressive activity in various animal models of depression, and a combination of curcumin with some antidepressants potentiates the antidepressive effect of these agents.

A psychoanalytic clinician looks at diagnostic labels and diagnostic classification systems.

As psychoanalytic clinicians, we do not believe that assessment should be diagnosis based. However, we are supportive of attempts to create a diagnostic classification system that reflects something essential about human nature and also serves clinical purposes. In this article, we present a psychoanalytic diagnostic scheme that combines a more descriptive characterological diagnosis with a more structural level of personality organization diagnosis.

When we were comrades together: a note on the language of assessment.

From a psychoanalytic perspective, the assessor is seen as more than a gatherer of data; he or she is viewed as a source of information independent of the tests as well as a potential vehicle of change. To effect these functions, the assessor needs to pay close attention to the language he or she uses in interaction with the patient. In this article, I present a case and then discuss it in terms of the role of language in the assessor-patient relationship: specifically, how the language used facilitated the establishing of a working alliance, the promoting of a meaningful dialogue, and eventually led to a deeper understanding of the patient.

Red beavers and building bridges between assessment and treatment.

In this article, I present a case involving early object loss in which I both assessed the patient and treated her. Assessment revealed a particular object relational defensive structure-a false self. The concept false self was then used as a bridge to treatment.

On developing a clinical sense of self.

It was Donald Winnicott who first described the mutual impact of mother and infant on each one's developing sense of self. It is my experience that something of the same occurs in the patient-clinician relationship. As the patient's sense of self evolves in the therapeutic relationship, the therapist's professional sense of self also develops in the context of this relationship.

From Freud to Gehrig to Rapaport to DiMaggio.

Lacking the size, talent, and speed to play shortstop for the New York Yankees, I chose instead to become a psychologist/psychoanalyst. Yet, baseball and psychoanalysis share much in common. Each is played in the inner diamonds of one's mind, values the past and what is passing, and requires a strong work ethic.

Further thoughts on an experiential psychoanalytic approach to the Rorschach.

On the basis of the work of Schachtel and Mayman, the author previously outlined an experiential approach to the Rorschach that differed from both an empirical approach and a more classic psychoanalytic approach originally proposed by Rapaport. Herein, the author further describes that approach by focusing on the person of the assessor as he or she goes about interpreting a protocol. Borrowing from the treatment literature, the author discusses the processes involved, including the need to immerse oneself in the raw data, the internal split between the experiencing self and the observing self, and the role of empathy and reflection.