fpamed News

Psychology of Millennials and the Legal Process: 2 blogpost by A2L Consulting

Recently, a legal blog that I follow, A2L Consulting, posted two very interesting commentaries on the Millennial generation describing ways in which their attitudes, values and behavior differ from the behavior and attitudes of Baby Boomers and the GenX cohort and how those differences may influence Millennial behavior within the context of legal processes. Both […]

Benefits of Taking Antidepressants During Pregnancy Outweigh Risks, Expert Says

According to Psychiatric News Alert, The Voice of the American Psychiatric Association and the Psychiatric Community, an expert on women’s health has reported that the Benefits of Taking Antidepressants During Pregnancy Outweigh Risks. According to the alert, As conflicting studies about the risk of birth defects in offspring of women who use antidepressants during pregnancy […]

Framingham Study Suggests Dementia Rates May Be Falling

The American Psychiatric Association has issued the following Psychiatric News Alert of a falling incidence of dementia based upon new data from the legendary Framingham Heart Study that started in Boston almost a half century ago. Framingham Study Suggests Dementia Rates May Be Falling Many experts predict that as people live longer, the prevalence of […]

When The Hospital Fires the Bullet….

The 2/13/16 New York Times article “When the Hospital Fires the Bullet” tells the truly incredible story of a Houston college student who had never been in trouble and was admitted to a local inpatient psychiatric facility for symptoms of the manic phase of his bipolar disorder. In an effort to subdue this student’s classically […]

Heart Rate and Behavioral Medicine

An interesting editorial in the October 2015 issue of JAMA Psychiatry entitled “Low Resting Heart Rate as an Unequivocal Risk Factor for Both the Perpetration of and Exposure to Violence” is a remarkable announcement of a biomarker for predicting which child or adolescent is most likely to behave violently and/or become a victim of violence. […]

Risk of Suicide Increases 3-Fold After Concussion

An February 8, 2016 article in the Canadian Medical Association Journal entitled “Risk of Suicide After Concussion” suggests that there is an increase of suicidal behavior post concussion, especially on weekend. Most of the attempted and completed suicides visited a physician shortly before attempting to take their own life. The “take-away” from this article is […]

Managing the Suicidal College Student: Advice for Community Providers

A long and thoughtful article in the Psychiatric Times from November 23, 2015 discusses the problems of college student suicide and provides “advice for community providers.” This is obviously a clinical as well as a forensic psychiatric issue. We are providing a link to the original article here for the interest of our blog readers. […]

Addressing Extremism

A White Paper entitled “Addressing Extremism” authored by The Institute for Conflict Analysis and Resolution (ICAR), George Mason University’s Dr Andrea Bartoli, and Dr. Peter T. Coleman, ICCCR, Teachers College, Columbia University, attempts to analyze the nature of extremism both in general and in the particular form that is radicalizing many seemingly mentally healthy young […]

Comment on “Lucid Interval” in Dementia & Questions of Testamentary Capacity

In an article appearing in the most recent issue of the Journal of the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law (JAAPL) (September 1, 2015 vol. 43 no. 3 287-292), by Shulman, Hull, et al., entitled “Cognitive Fluctuations and the Lucid Interval in Dementia: Implications for Testamentary Capacity,” the authors introduce a significant new challenge […]

Head of Mental Health Institute Leaving for Google Life Sciences By BENEDICT CAREY

From The New York Times…</ Dr. Thomas R. Insel announced that he is stepping down after 13 years as director of the National Institute of Mental Health. By BENEDICT CAREY Published: Sept. 15, 2015 Dr. Thomas R. Insel announced that he is stepping down after 13 years as director of the National Institute of Mental […]

Depression Literally Colors the Way We See the World

An interesting finding: According to a recent Huffington Post article, “Depression Literally Colors the Way We See the World,” feeling states affect our capacity to perceive color tones. This article was based upon a scientific study that was published recently in the journal Psychological Science entitled “Sadness Impairs Color Perception.” As supportive anecdotal evidence, an […]

How to Halt the Violence

On the August 29, 2015 New York Times op ed page, Jeffrey Lieberman, MD, Chairman of the Department of Psychiatry at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, wrote an op-ed article entitled “How to Halt the Violence.” It is a superb effort to address head on the pointless 24 hour news cycle hand wringing […]

Antidepressants Affect Morality And Decision-Making, New Study Finds

An interesting study of the sociology of antidepressants performed by researchers at University College London and Oxford University was published in the journal Cell Biology. Researchers found that a serotonergic antidepressant drug (citalopram – Celexa) increased the desire to avoid harm to oneself and creased the tendency to inflict harm on others and a dopaminergic […]

Can the Bacteria In Your Gut Explain Your Mood

In an intriguing June 23, 2015 New York Times article with the provocative title, “Can the Bacteria In Your Gut Explain Your Mood,” the science journalist Peter Andrey Smith explores the hypothesis that among the myriad of microbes in our intestines, some manufacture neurochemicals that may well affect the neurochemistry in our brains just as […]

Assessing Emotional Damages Claims of a Population in Multi-Plaintiff Litigation

fpamed Forensic neuropsychologist Ronald Roberts PhD and Forensic Psychiatrist Mark Levy MD, DLFAPA presented on July 2, 2015 to the National CDL Practice Group of the Seyfarth Shaw, LLP law firm, a discussion entitled “Assessing Emotional Damages Claims of a Population in Multi-Plaintiff Litigation.” A pdf of the powerpoint slides for that presentation can be […]

Should the Trial of James Holmes be the beginning of the end for use of psychiatric testimony in court to judge guilt or innocence? “

The following is a post from the Psychiatric Times LinkedIn page byJohn Liebert, MD CM Psychiatrist in Scottsdale, Arizona. Following his post, Mark Levy MD has added a lengthy comment The Trial of James Holmes “Despite that hurdle for prosecutors, legal observers say Mr. Holmes’s lawyers are facing huge obstacles. For weeks, people who lost […]

Vetting System for Pilots May Lessen Chances of Germanwings Repeat

The following article from the newspaper of the American Psychiatric Association is a follow up on previous blog posts on this fpamed.com site concerning the GermanWings crash, pilot depression and cockpit screening for potentially dangerous signs of mental illness. From the American Psychiatric Association’s PsychiatricNews: by Aaron Levin, 07 May 2015 No evaluation process is […]

BERKELEY: BART takes steps to prevent suicides on tracks

Forensic psychiatrist Mark Levy MD was recently interviewed by a San Francisco Fox News affiliate KTVU reporter, Rob Ross, to comment on a new plan by the Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) System to begin a suicide prevention program within BART stations where there have been a number of suicides recently. The interview can be […]

Mental Illness in the Cockpit

by Mark Levy MD Medical Director fpamed The New York Times lead article on Sunday April 19, 2015 was headlined “Germanwings Crash Exposes History of Denial of Risk of Pilot Suicide” Germanwings Crash Expose…t Suicide – NYTimes What is most shocking among the revelations contained in this article is that there have been rare but […]

Lufthansa: Germanwings Co-pilot had been treated for “deep depression.” Mental Illness Stigma Keeps Pilots’ Problems Hidden

by Mark I Levy MD Forensic Psychiatrist Medical Director fpamed Assistant Clinical Professor, Psychiatry, UCSF School of Medicine Two articles in the March 31, 2015 New York Times revealed that Andreas Lubitz, the presumed suicidal co-pilot who appears to have intentionally crashed a Germanwings aircraft into the French Alps last week, murdering all 149 passengers […]

Relying on Self-reported Emotional Impairment by Pilots is Inadequate Risk Assessment

Charles Saldanha, MD Forensic Psychiatrist Asst. Clinical Professor, Psychiatry, UCSF That the co-pilot at the controls of the Germanwings airliner did not fully disclose his mental health condition is tragic, but not surprising. The current reliance on self-report of mental health diagnoses and treatment is likely to generate many false negatives. People with mental health […]

Co-pilot in Germanwings Crash Alleged to Have Hidden Mental Illness from Employer

Mark I Levy MD Forensic Psychiatrist Medical Director Forensic Psychiatric Associates, LP Asst. Clinical Professor, Psychiatry, UCSF School of Medicine According to a March 28, 2015 article in the New York Times, the co-pilot who locked the pilot out of the cockpit and deliberately crashed a German Wings aircraft flying from Spain to Germany, killing […]

Employment Rights for People with Bipolar Disorder

A recent article in the Bipolar Network News (BNN) bipolarnews.org Vol. 19, Issue 1, 2015, highlights that according to the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) Amendments Act of 2008 (ADAAA) patients with Bipolar Disorder are covered under the ADA. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), charged with enforcing the ADAAA, has made it clear in […]

Exercise Linked to Improved Erectile and Sexual Function in Men

The Journal of Sexual Medicine reported today that moderate regular exercise is linked to improved erectile function in men. Exercise Linked to Improved Erectile and Sexual Function in Men Released: 23-Mar-2015 5:00 AM EDT Source Newsroom: Cedars-Sinai Medical Center Citations Journal of Sexual Medicine Newswise — LOS ANGELES (March 23, 2015) – Men who exercise […]

Despite Federal Law, Some Insurance Exchange Plans Offer Unequal Coveragge for Mental Healt

According to an article in Medical Press dated March 3, 2015, One-quarter of the health plans being sold on health insurance exchanges set up through the Affordable Care Act offer benefits that appear to violate a federal law requiring equal benefits for general medical and mental health care, according to new research led by the […]