Internet and Psychiatry

Carl J Lavie, M.D., Arthur R. Menezes, M.D., Richard V. Milani, M.D.                                                                            

We read with interest the recent study by Chamberlain and colleagues¹ from Olmsted county demonstrating the association of depression and anxiety with hospitalizations for cardiovascular diseases (CVD), as well as the association of depression with increased all-cause mortality.  We have previously published on the high prevalence of hostility and total psychosocial stress (PSS), as well as depression and anxiety, in patients with CVD.^2-9  We agree that greater  attention directed at depression, anxiety, and total PSS is needed in secondary, as well as primary, prevention of CVD.

Maria Dolores Braquehais Conesa, M.D., Ph.D.

Current psychiatric models of suicidal acts, such as Mann’s (1;2), Oquendo’s (3) and Turecki’s (4), have tried to summarize findings obtained in epidemiological, clinical and neurobiological studies in holistic frameworks. However, those models have serious theoretical and methodological limitations. Those limitations are not exclusive to models of suicide but are present in other models used in Psychiatry.

Leo Sher, M.D.

Substance use disorders are frequently comorbid with other psychiatric disorders. Substance use disorders are complex brain illnesses characterized by compulsive drug craving, seeking, and use despite very harmful consequences. Substance-induced changes in brain structure and function occur in some of the same brain areas that are disrupted in other psychiatric disorders, such as depression, anxiety disorders, or psychoses. It is not unexpected that studies show a high rate of co-occurrence, or comorbidity, between substance use disorders and other psychiatric illnesses. Psychiatric disorders are established risk factors for subsequent drug abuse, and vice versa.

Leo Sher, M.D.

The “II International Congress on Dual Disorders: Addictive Behaviours and other Mental Disorders” (Barcelona, Spain, October 5-8, 2011) was attended by about 1600 participants and featured hundreds of presenters from 60 countries, including Spain, United States, Hungary, Norway, Canada, Italy, France, Colombia, Austria, New Zealand, Israel, Ecuador, Venezuela, Argentina, Chile, Iran, Slovak Republic, Germany, Denmark, Great Britain, Lithuania, Mexico, India, Portugal, Serbia, Switzerland, Slovenia, Netherlands, Australia, Nigeria, Costa Rica, Egypt, Sweden, Morocco, and Azerbaijan.

Marijuana is the most prolifically used illicit drug among adolescents in the United States. This elicits serious reason for concern given the main effects of early-onset use—neurocognitive deficiencies, psychosocial risk-taking behavior, and developmental as well as psychological problems. With a most vulnerable population willfully choosing to put their mental health—as much as their young futures—in danger, parents especially beg the question, why do adolescents use marijuana? To what extent does early-onset have immediate implications on development, and how are early adolescents especially susceptible to marijuana toxicity?

The Hippocratic Oath is one of the most widely known of Greek medical texts. It requires a new physician to swear that he will uphold a number of professional ethical standards. It is widely believed to have been written by Hippocrates or by one of his students. Hippocrates of Cos or Hippokrates of Kos (ca. 460 BC – ca. 370 BC) was an ancient Greek physician of the Age of Pericles (Classical Athens). Hippocrates was ahead of his time in believing that diseases had natural causes, not supernatural ones, and that people could cure diseases. Hippocrates is considered one of the most outstanding figures in the history of medicine and referred to as the father of Western medicine.