Routine outcome monitoring (ROM) is a method devised to systematically collect data on the effectiveness of treatments in everyday clinical practice. ROM involves documenting the outcome of treatments through repeated assessments. Assistants are employed who perform a baseline assessment comprising a standardized diagnostic interview, administration of rating scales and completion of several self-report measures by the patient. At fixed time intervals, assessments are repeated. Dedicated Web-based software has been developed to assist in this task. ROM informs therapists and patients on the severity of the complaints at intake, and the waxing and waning of symptoms over the course of treatment. Researchers can use ROM for effectiveness research, and managers can use it for benchmarking. Th...MedWorm Message: Get the very latest Swine Flu news via the MedWorm Swine Flu RSS news feed - updated hourly from thousands of authoritative health and news sources.

The numerous tremors and after-shocks that followed the February 27 earthquake in Chile have added new levels of stress to an already shaken population. Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) has therefore made mental health care a priority in its response to the disaster. Simultaneously, as the nights grow colder and the chance of rainfall increases, MSF is speeding up its distribution of plastic sheeting and blankets for people whose homes were damaged and who are now often camping outdoors. The MSF psychological team is providing direct counselling and psychosocial workshops for various groups, and debriefings for medical staff. It is also lending support to local authorities by training volunteers who will be deployed to provide mental health care in the affected areas. Photo: © MSF I...

What best describes the symptom of feeling "disconnected" from the world by a patient with panic disorder? USMLEasy from McGraw-Hill (Source: Medscape Today Headlines)

Conclusion  These findings emphasize the need to improve the access to mental health services and the quality of care for individuals with anxiety disorders in primary care. Content Type Journal ArticleCategory Original PaperDOI 10.1007/s00127-010-0186-2Authors Pasquale Roberge, University of Montreal Department of Social and Preventive Medicine, Faculty of Medicine Montreal QC CanadaLouise Fournier, University of Montreal Department of Social and Preventive Medicine, Faculty of Medicine Montreal QC CanadaArnaud Duhoux, University of Montreal Department of Social and Preventive Medicine, Faculty of Medicine Montreal QC CanadaCat Tuong Nguyen, University of Montreal Department of Social and Preventive Medicine, Faculty of Medicine Montreal QC CanadaMirrian Smolders, Ra...

'The idea of a simple and readily available mask came to me after the Chernobyl nuclear accident in Ukraine'Last October, at Harvard University, I was awarded the Ig Nobel prize for public health for inventing the Emergency Bra, an item of lingerie that, in case of an emergency, can be quickly transformed into two protective respiratory face masks.Don't get too excited, boys: this can be done without removing any clothes.My Ig Nobel nomination came as a pleasant surprise. And I recognised that this competitive prize for "scientific achievements that first make people laugh and then make them think" is hugely popular and a great opportunity to deliver a message on emergency preparedness to the public.I admit that disaster preparedness is not the most enthralling discussion topic, but it is ...

Conclusion: Anxiety disorders, especially panic disorder and PTSD, are independently associated with suicide attempts. Clinicians need to assess suicidal behavior among patients presenting with anxiety problems. Depression and Anxiety 0:1-8, 2010. © 2010 Wiley-Liss, Inc. (Source: Depression and Anxiety)MedWorm Message: Get the very latest Swine Flu news via the MedWorm Swine Flu RSS news feed - updated hourly from thousands of authoritative health and news sources.

Conclusions: PD is an independent risk factor for PPD, underscoring need to assess PD symptoms during pregnancy. Furthermore, PD represents an important risk factor for the development of PPD and should be routinely screened in order to develop specific preventive interventions. (Source: Journal of Affective Disorders)

Abstract  Human prion diseases can be sporadic, inherited or acquired by infection and show considerable phenotypic heterogeneity. We describe the clinical, histopathological and pathological prion protein (PrPSc) characteristics of a Dutch family with a novel 7-octapeptide repeat insertion (7-OPRI) in PRNP, the gene encoding the prion protein (PrP). Clinical features were available in four, neuropathological features in three and biochemical characteristics in two members of this family. The clinical phenotype was characterized by slowly progressive cognitive decline, personality change, lethargy, depression with anxiety and panic attacks, apraxia and a hypokinetic-rigid syndrome. Neuropathological findings consisted of numerous multi- and unicentric amyloid plaques througho...

(NaturalNews) In the first Paxil birth defect trial that resulted in a $2.5 million verdict against GlaxoSmithKline in October 2009, the infant, Lyam Kilker, was born with three heart defects; an atrial septal defect, a ventricular septal defect, and an interrupted aortic arch, after his mother took Paxil while pregnant. Pregnant women cannot participate in clinical trials on drugs due to the risk of harm to the fetus. But after a drug has been on the market for a while, epidemiology studies can review the medical records of women who have taken a new drug while pregnant and the records of women who were not exposed to the drug while pregnant and compare the outcomes of the infants.The plaintiff's experts, Doctors Ra-id Abdulla, David Healy, Shira Kramer and Suzanne Parisian, all testified...

A user submission from Kathryn O'Neill about her own experiences with panic disorder and schizophrenaform disorder. (Source: About.com Mental Health)

A lifestyle intervention may help a large proportion of patients with panic disorder, new research suggests. Medscape Medical News (Source: Medscape Today Headlines)MedWorm Message: Get the very latest Swine Flu news via the MedWorm Swine Flu RSS news feed - updated hourly from thousands of authoritative health and news sources.

Conclusions A significant range of psychiatric disorders occur after traumatic injury. The identification and treatment of a range of psychiatric disorders are important for optimal adaptation after traumatic injury. (Source: Am J Psychiatry)

Authors: Carvalho MR, Freire RC, Nardi AE Virtual reality (VR) is as effective in inducing emotional responses as reality and its application is extremely valuable in exposure treatment. In virtual environments, the patients experience similar physiological symptoms and fear as they do in real life situations, thereby facilitating the habituation process. Our goal is to offer an overview of the current panorama of VR and psychotherapy, underlining the (virtual) exposure technique and the studies that focus on panic disorder treatment through the use of VR. The literature was revised through consultation to the ISI and PubMed databases. Virtual exposure treatment offers good results and great patient acceptability. However, despite the importance of this data for the evaluation of treat...

Psychopathology 2010;43:170–179 (DOI:10.1159/000288639) (Source: Karger Publishers)

Conclusions: These findings highlight the chronicity of SP, as well as factors that may affect its naturalistic course. It is imperative that primary-care physicians and mental health specialists assess for and treat SP in their practices. Future research is warranted to further examine the effect of medical and psychiatric comorbidity on SP course. Depression and Anxiety 0:1-7, 2010. © 2010 Wiley-Liss, Inc. (Source: Depression and Anxiety)

We present this case to alert practitioners to the potential co-morbidity and symptom overlap between SPS and eating disorders, to aid in early recognition and appropriate treatment of this rare illness. © 2010 by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Int J Eat Disord 2010 (Source: International Journal of Eating Disorders)MedWorm Message: Get the very latest Swine Flu news via the MedWorm Swine Flu RSS news feed - updated hourly from thousands of authoritative health and news sources.

Abstract: The aim of this study was to validate the Dutch version of the Kessler-10 (K10) as well as an extended version (EK10) in screening for depressive and anxiety disorders in primary care. Data are from 1607 participants (18 through 65 years, 68.8% female) of the Netherlands Study of Depression and Anxiety (NESDA), recruited from 65 general practitioners. Participants completed the K10, extended with five additional questions focusing on core anxiety symptoms, and were evaluated with the WHO Composite International Diagnostic Interview (CIDI lifetime version 2.1) to assess DSM-IV disorders (major depressive disorder, dysthymia, generalized anxiety disorder, social phobia, panic disorder, agoraphobia). Reliability (Cronbach's α) of the Dutch K10 was 0.94. Based on Receiver Operating...

Authors: Giardino ND, Curtis JL, Abelson JL, King AP, Pamp B, Liberzon I, Martinez FJ The prevalence of panic disorder (PD) in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is significantly higher than that in the general population. Comorbid anxiety disorders in COPD are associated with a number of worse outcomes, however little is known about the mechanisms by which PD affects patients with COPD. We hypothesized that patients with COPD and PD would have greater dyspnea severity, but not greater somatosensory sensitivity, to dyspneic stimuli. We studied ten patients with COPD and PD, 9 patients with COPD without PD, and 9 healthy,matched controls. Participants were administered the Anxiety Sensitivity Index-3. We tested interoceptive sensitivity using a respiratory load d...

What everybody wants to know about Amy Bishop, the cold blooded killer in Alabama, is why somebody didn't stop her long ago. To media talking heads, Amy Bishop is a deeply disturbed woman who gave many hints of her dangerousness. Media talking heads think mental health professionals are supposed to protect the public from the Amy Bishops among us, yet in case after case we see this did not happen. Why? Mental health professionals cite a number of legal barriers to their stopping potentially dangerous people who have not committed a crime. What they don't say is that, for the most part, psychodynamics is an historical science that explains behavior but is poorly suited to predicting it. Researchers, moreover, have not created a scientific technology that predicts human behavior in natural e...

A study performed by a group of Italian investigators and published in the current issue of Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics has explored the relationship between adverse events, early antecedents and carbon dioxide reactivity (CO2 reactivity) in panic disorder. Although adverse events have been consistently described to precede and potentially precipitate the onset of panic disorder, there is no information about their ability to alter the individual reactivity to inhaled carbon dioxide, a putative intermediate phenotype of susceptibility to panic disorder... (Source: Health News from Medical News Today)