Overview The United States population over the age of 65 years has been increasing dramatically, reflecting improvements in health, nutrition, and medical care for the elderly. Illness (both medical and psychiatric) increases with advancing age in part due to stressful…
Overview Pediatric psychiatry consults are requested to address a diverse set of issues and needs. Similar to the work involving adult psychiatric consultations, the child psychiatrist evaluates the patient, acts as a liaison to the medical and nursing staff, manages…
With more than 2.6 million deaths each year in the United States, providing both competent and compassionate care for patients at the end of life is a crucial task for physicians. The Institute of Medicine identified end-of-life care as one…
Introduction Over the past 20 years, emergency psychiatry has developed into an independent subspecialty practice within psychiatry. Although formal board certification requirements are lacking, all accredited US psychiatric residency-training programs follow minimum training guidelines for emergency psychiatry. The emergence of…
Overview Suicide, or intentional self-harm with the intent of causing death, is the 11th leading cause of death in the United States, accounting for more than 40,000 deaths each year. Non-lethal self-inflicted injuries are even more prevalent, accounting for nearly…
Overview The medical equivalent of war is the care of the difficult patient. Doctors soldier steadily on through all kinds of clinical chores, arduous schedules, and “administrivia,” but when they get to the types of patients variously called “obnoxious,” “needy,”…
Overview Complementary and alternative medical (CAM) therapies constitute a diverse spectrum of practices and beliefs in current medical practice. The National Institutes of Health has defined CAM as “healthcare practices outside the realm of conventional medicine, which are yet to…
Overview Lifestyle choices are associated with the development of chronic non-communicable diseases (NCDs). Centuries ago, Hippocrates emphasized the power of exercise and nutrition; he noted, “If we could give every individual the right amount of nourishment and exercise, not too…
Overview The National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health defines Mind–Body Medicine as an approach that “focuses on the interactions among the brain, mind, body, and behavior, and on the powerful ways in which emotional, mental, social, spiritual, and behavioral…
Overview Similar to adults, hospitalized children can develop psychiatric illness as a result of psychosocial stresses of hospitalization (e.g., loss of control, threat of illness, separation from caregivers), effects of general medical conditions (e.g., infections), use of medications or substances…