Core Competencies of an Anti-racist Physician: Elective Course for Undergraduate Medical Students.

Introduction: Medical schools seeking to correct and reform curricula towards anti-racist perspectives need to address anti-Black forms of racism specifically and teach students critical upstander skills to interrupt manifestations of racism. We developed a course to teach preclinical medical students basic anti-racism competencies including recognition and awareness of anti-Black racism in medicine and upstander skills to advocate for patients and colleagues.

Methods: In 2021 and 2022, we designed, implemented, and evaluated an elective course for second-year medical students ( = 149) to introduce competencies of anti-racism focusing on upstander skills for addressing anti-Blackness.

Advances in Child Psychiatry Education and Training.

The article provides a comprehensive overview of the current state of child and adolescent psychiatry, including historical background and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. It discusses recent advances in theoretical frameworks related to physician burnout, prevention, access to care, diversity, equity, and inclusion, and trauma-informed care. The authors conclude by emphasizing the importance of education and training in improving the lives of youth and families and encourage their colleagues to push the boundaries of education and training for a better today and brighter tomorrow, while honoring and doing justice to those they serve.

Reducing Pediatric Mental Health Boarding and Increasing Acute Care Access.

Background: There have been notable increases in pediatric mental health boarding in the United States in recent years, with youth remaining in emergency departments or admitted to inpatient medical/surgical units, awaiting placement in psychiatric treatment programs.

Objectives: We aimed to evaluate the outcomes of interventions to reduce boarding and improve access to acute psychiatric services at a large tertiary pediatric hospital during a national pediatric mental health crisis.

Methods: Boarding interventions included expanding inpatient psychiatric beds and hiring additional staff for enhanced crisis stabilization services and treatment initiation in the emergency department and on inpatient medical/surgical units for boarding patients awaiting placement.

Psychotropic Medication Administration in Pediatric Emergency Departments.

Background And Objectives: Visits by youth to the emergency department (ED) with mental and behavioral health (MBH) conditions are increasing, yet use of psychotropic medications during visits has not been well described. We aimed to assess changes in psychotropic medication use over time, overall and by medication category, and variation in medication administration across hospitals.

Methods: We conducted a retrospective cross-sectional study of ED encounters by youth aged 3-21 with MBH diagnoses using the Pediatric Health Information System, 2013-2022.

A comparison of academic and clinical assessments between endodontic residents receiving in-person versus virtual instruction.

Objectives: Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, all modes of instruction were moved to virtual teaching for the matriculating endodontic residents at Boston University (BU) School of Dental Medicine (2020-2021). As dentistry is a very hands-on profession, the switch to virtual teaching comes with its own issues of concept retention, zoom fatigue, and limited interaction/lack of engagement between residents and faculty. There has already been a steady decline in the attendance of live lectures by medical and dental students, with students underscoring the ease of watching online lectures/recorded lectures and learning at their own pace.

Presentation of Patients with Eating Disorders to a Pediatric Quaternary-Level Care Emergency Department During the COVID-19 Pandemic.

Despite an overall decrease in utilization of emergency departments during COVID-19 (Hartnett et al. in MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep. 69(23):699-704, 2020), US pediatric emergency departments experienced an increase in mental health visits for children and adolescents (Leeb et al.

Effectiveness and Safety of Ketamine for Unipolar Depression: a Systematic Review.

Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) is a common psychiatric disorder with major implications for healthcare system and socioeconomic burden. For chronic and treatment-resistant depression, Ketamine has emerged as a possible treatment option. This systematic review explores the evidence for the effectiveness and tolerability of Ketamine in patients with MDD.

Comparing the Effectiveness of a Guide Booklet to Simulation-Based Training for Management of Acute Agitation.

Simulation-based training may be an effective teaching modality for psychiatry residents; however, simulation-based training is an unstudied and underutilized aspect of psychiatry resident training. The objective of this study was to compare the teaching effectiveness of a simulation-based training to reading a resident on-call psychiatry guide booklet in improving the self-confidence and knowledge of residents that is necessary for managing acutely agitated patients. Pre-intervention self-confidence and knowledge were measured for all residents using a Likert scale questionnaire and a clinical vignette questionnaire, respectively.

Identify, Engage, Understand: Supporting Transgender Youth in an Inpatient Psychiatric Hospital.

Transgender adolescents may require for inpatient psychiatric care, and have unique healthcare needs and can face barriers to quality care. This study sought to address limited understanding of the inpatient experience of transgender adolescents. This study uses qualitative methods to gain insight into the experience of transgender adolescents and psychiatric care providers on an adolescent inpatient psychiatric unit in the northeast United States.

Social Media Use, Friendship Quality, and the Moderating Role of Anxiety in Adolescents with Autism Spectrum Disorder.

Social media holds promise as a technology to facilitate social engagement, but may displace offline social activities. Adolescents with ASD are well suited to capitalize on the unique features of social media, which requires less decoding of complex social information. In this cross-sectional study, we assessed social media use, anxiety and friendship quality in 44 adolescents with ASD, and 56 clinical comparison controls.

Peduncular psychosis.

Psychotic symptoms are rarely documented in association with cortex-sparing central nervous system (CNS) lesions limited to the midbrain. We present the case of a 15-year-old boy with hereditary and environmental risk factors for psychiatric illness, as well as a history of midbrain pilocytic astrocytoma treated with chemotherapy and focused radiation, who presented with non-epileptic seizures, hyper-religiosity and frank psychosis. The space-occupying midbrain lesion has been radiographically stable while the patient has decompensated psychiatrically.

Reduction of Aggressive Episodes After Repeated Transdermal Nicotine Administration in a Hospitalized Adolescent with Autism Spectrum Disorder.

Aggression remains a major cause of morbidity in patients with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Current pharmacotherapy for aggression is not always effective and is often associated with morbidity. Nicotinic acetylcholinergic neurotransmission may play a prominent role in ASD pathophysiology based on human and animal studies, and preclinical studies show nicotine administration can reduce aggression-related behaviors.

Patient-provider communication over social media: perspectives of adolescents with psychiatric illness.

Background: Social media is an increasingly dominant platform for communication, especially among adolescents. Statements from professional bodies and a growing body of empirical evidence support a role for social media in improving provider-patient interactions. In psychiatry, particular concerns exist about the suitability of this style of communication.

Varieties of misdiagnosis in ASD: an illustrative case series.

The relationship between autism spectrum disorders (ASD) and psychotic disorders (PD) is a focus of continued interest. There are substantial conceptual and clinical difficulties associated with diagnosing comorbid PD in individuals who have ASD. In this case series, we report on five cases where adolescents with previously diagnosed ASD were also diagnosed as psychotic.