Harvard Review of Psychiatry最新文献

Learning objectives: After participating in this CME activity, the psychiatrist should be better able to:• Describe how to identify and address emotional eating in the primary care setting.

Abstract: Emotional eating (i.e., eating in response to negative emotional states and stress) is a highly prevalent concern within primary care settings. It is associated with myriad health issues such as the experience of overweight or obesity, increased difficulty losing weight and sustaining weight loss, various eating disorders, diabetes, and heart disease. Given the effects of emotional eating on patient health goals regarding weight loss or management, it is imperative to incorporate interventions that address emotional underpinnings alongside traditional, behaviorally based weight-loss treatment. Ensuring that primary care providers, who represent pivotal frontline touch points for patients interested in weight-related treatment, can identify emotional eating is an important first step in supporting these patients' goals. The primary purpose of this paper is to provide background information and practical guidance for addressing emotional eating in the primary care setting. We summarize theorized biological and psychological mechanisms that underlie emotional eating, and review traditional (i.e., psychological) interventions, with special consideration for adapting available treatments for use in primary care contexts.

Learning objectives after participating in this cme activity, readers should be better able to: • Describe how the symptoms of dysphoric milk ejection reflex (D-MER) affect nursing patients.• Discuss how physicians, psychologists, and clinicians can support their patients experiencing D-MER.

Abstract: Dysphoric milk ejection reflex (D-MER) is characterized by a sudden onset of profoundly negative emotions that are temporally linked to milk letdown when breastfeeding or pumping breast milk. These affective experiences have no psychological precipitants and only last for minutes. D-MER is relatively underappreciated in the physician-oriented medical literature, although there are important clinical and public health consequences when a nursing parent experiences unwanted, negative emotions paired with breastfeeding. D-MER can undermine the parent's confidence and may affect bonding with their infant; it may also contribute to weaning earlier than planned. It is especially important for psychiatrists and other health care professionals who may be called upon to evaluate postpartum patients or nursing parents to be knowledgeable about D-MER. This perspective article aims to provide information about D-MER to the psychiatric and broader medical communities, and to underscore the need for additional research on this topic. Drawing on a literature search, the article first traces historical recognition of D-MER as a clinical entity, then summarizes the clinical characteristics of D-MER and recommends an assessment and management approach that emphasizes psychoeducation. The article also discusses factors that have contributed to the underappreciation of this condition, outlines gaps in our understanding, and suggests next steps for epidemiological and clinical research. D-MER is likely a neuroendocrine condition with psychiatric manifestations. Given that it is episodic but with predictable timing, this condition presents a unique opportunity for scientific investigation.

Abstract: Bioethicists have long been concerned with the mistreatment of institutionalized patients, including those suffering from mental illness. Despite this attention, the built environments of health care settings have largely escaped bioethical analysis. This is a striking oversight given that architects and social scientists agree that buildings reflect and reinforce prevailing social, cultural, and medical attitudes. Architectural choices are therefore ethical choices. We argue that mental health institutions are fertile sites for ethical analysis. Examining the ethics of architecture calls attention to the potential for hospitals to hinder autonomy. Additionally, such examination highlights the salutogenic possibilities of institutional design, that is to care, nurture, and enhance patient and provider well-being.

Abstract: This column first reviews evidence that veterans have poorer response to trauma-focused therapies for PTSD compared to civilians. We then consider several explanations for this trend, starting with gender as a possible confounding variable. We also examine other hypotheses, including the effects of the military acculturation process, the unique influences of military traumas, such as combat and military sexual traumas, and the roles of traumatic brain injuries (TBIs) and moral injury. Future research, we conclude, must determine whether gender explains the differences in trauma-focused therapy response. If so, then the underlying reasons must be further explored. If not, then we must determine the unique characteristics of the veteran population that make it more resistant to treatment. Mining these elements will help us adapt our trauma-focused therapies to better help this population and close the response-rate gap.

Abstract: Outpatient mental health care in the United States is delivered by an uncoordinated patchwork of public and private entities that struggle to effectively differentiate the care they provide. The COVID-19 pandemic catalyzed transformative changes in this space, including rapid adoption of telehealth and escalating private sector investment to provide services for individuals wishing to obtain care through insurance. In this article, we briefly review the current landscape of ambulatory mental health care. Utilizing Kissick's Iron Triangle model of health care delivery, we compare the relative strengths and weaknesses of academic medical centers and the growing private sector, entities potentially positioned to synergistically foster a mental health ecosystem with improved quality, access, and cost-effectiveness. A roadmap for strategic integration is presented for how academic centers-institutions frequently overwhelmed by patient volume-might leverage partnerships with a private sector eager to utilize novel technology to improve access, demonstrate data-driven outcomes, and advocate for improved reimbursement from payers. We also assess the potential risks and pitfalls of such collaboration. In return, academic institutions can refocus on their strengths, including research, systems knowledge, quality-improvement initiatives, education and training, and specialty clinical care.

Abstract: Clinical neurosciences, and psychiatry specifically, have been challenged by the lack of a comprehensive and practical framework that explains the core mechanistic processes of variable psychiatric presentations. Current conceptualization and classification of psychiatric presentations are primarily centered on a non-biologically based clinical descriptive approach. Despite various attempts, advances in neuroscience research have not led to an improved conceptualization or mechanistic classification of psychiatric disorders. This perspective article proposes a new-work-in-progress-framework for conceptualizing psychiatric presentations based on neural network components (NNC). This framework could guide the development of mechanistic disease classification, improve understanding of underpinning pathology, and provide specific intervention targets. This model also has the potential to dissolve artificial barriers between the fields of psychiatry and neurology.