Role Distinctions and Role Overlap Among Behavioral Health Providers.

Integrated behavioral health care (IBHC) models are a growing trend for health care delivery, particularly in the primary setting. Clinicians working within IBHC contexts provide a spectrum of behavioral health services, including screening, prevention and health promotion, assessment, and treatment services. Integration of behavioral health providers into primary and specialty medical settings addresses the significant need for behavioral health services, improves care quality, improves patient experience, and reduces costs of care, access issues, and delays in service provision.

Equity for and Inclusion of Non-Tenure-Track Pharmacy Faculty Within Academia.

Although there are at least twice as many non-tenure-track first-time pharmacy faculty as tenured and tenure-track first-time pharmacy faculty entering academia based on data collected from 2013 to 2019, there are ongoing equity, inclusion, and advancement issues between these categories of faculty that require consideration. Contracts with clear descriptions of responsibilities are needed along with regular evaluations and promotion opportunities based on the faculty member's performance of the assigned responsibilities, appropriate compensation including fringe benefits, inclusion in institutional voting and governance, and due process protections against abrupt termination. Further, universities and schools and colleges of pharmacy should foster a culture that values all faculty regardless of rank or position.

The mirror lies: body dysmorphic disorder.

Body dysmorphic disorder is an increasingly recognized somatoform disorder, clinically distinct from obsessive-compulsive disorder, eating disorders, and depression. Patients with body dysmorphic disorder are preoccupied with an imagined deficit in the appearance of one or more body parts, causing clinically significant stress, impairment, and dysfunction. The preoccupation is not explained by any other psychiatric disorder.

An exploratory study: the use of paroxetine for methamphetamine craving.

Methamphetamine abuse and dependence are growing problems nationally and worldwide. There are currently no effective pharmocologic treatments. Animal studies with SSRI's suggest that serotonergic modulation alters methamphetamine's behavioral effects.

Characteristics of patients with schizophrenia in two cities in the U.S. and India.

Gender-matched samples of patients with chronic schizophrenia were randomly selected from two metropolitan psychiatric emergency departments, one in Cincinnati, Ohio, (N = 47) and the other in Pune, India (N = 48). Severity and chronicity of symptoms in the two samples were comparable. Indian patients were significantly more likely to be married and employed than their American counterparts.

The effects of race on diagnosis and disposition from a psychiatric emergency service.

Background: Previous studies have reported that racial differences exist in patterns of clinical psychiatric diagnoses as well as the distribution of mental health services resources. The psychiatric emergency service serves as an entry point into the mental health system, so it plays a potentially important role in addressing racial disparities in diagnosis and disposition. To address this disparity, the authors studied two specific questions: (1) are there racial differences in diagnosis and (2) are there racial differences in disposition of patients visiting a psychiatric emergency service?

Method: Demographic and clinical data were obtained by retrospective chart review of 490 patients randomly selected from 9500 visits to a large psychiatric emergency service during a 1-year period.

Cost-effective inpatient care of neuropsychiatric patients.

Managed care has decreased the frequency of hospitalization for psychiatric disorders, and it may have an especially strong impact on neuropsychiatric patients. The use of targeted, cost-effective interventions improves the quality of patient care and can assist with approval of funding for inpatient care by utilization review agencies.

Pitfalls in presenting and interpreting clinical trial data.

Information generated by a clinical trial, when conveyed to health professionals and prospective patients, is affected by the original design of the trial and by the manner in which the results are presented. One problem in study design is the management of comparison groups in randomized assignments. When a comparison group is treated with an accepted standard compound, the chosen standard drug may be one that is associated with more side effects and complications than later modifications of the standard.

Residency training in emergency psychiatry : changes between 1980 and 1990.

Independent random samples of residency training programs were surveyed in 1980 and in 1990 about their emergency psychiatry training. A larger percentage of the programs required daytime emergency service duty in 1990 (80%), compared with 1980 data (50%), and a larger percentage offered a daytime block training rotation, defined as at least 5 days a week of emergency psychiatry for at least 4 weeks (48%), compared with 23% in 1980. Each sample reported that the most important topics in emergency psychiatry were being taught.

Hearing impairment and psychosis.

The study explores the relationship between hearing impairment and psychotic illness in twenty hospitalized patients (aged 55-77) using as controls twenty age-matched community-based older subjects with no psychiatric illness. All subjects received full psychiatric evaluations and comprehensive audiologic assessments. Data were analyzed by discriminant analysis and ANOVA.

A new scale for assessing behavioral agitation in dementia.

The primary purpose of the present study was to develop a reliable and valid rating instrument for assessing treatment efficacy for behavioral problems in the cognitively impaired elderly. The Behavioral and Emotional Activities Manifested in Dementia (BEAM-D) Scale was developed for the operational assessment of troublesome and disruptive behaviors in dementia. Each behavioral category of the BEAM-D was clinically considered to be a significant deviation from normative behavior for the geriatric dementia patient.