Original article: http://www.psychiatrictimes.com/psychotherapy/best-and-not-so-great-articles-2017 By Jerald Kay. MD. December 2017 issue of the Psychiatric Times. A few points regarding the articles presented: 1. On the Roy-Berne et al. article on “highlighting the myth of precision psychiatry”. I think Dr Kay and others need to have a long-term perspective. While genetic testing is a […]
Mental Health
I was surprised that Brown did not cite this article from “JAMA Psychiatry” May, 2014 that could have helped him understand something about half (or more) of servicemen: Thirty-Day Prevalence of DSM-IV Mental Disorders Among Nondeployed Soldiers in the US Army. Results From the Army Study to Assess Risk and […]
Douglas Berger, Psychiatrist in Tokyo Comments on, “Burden, Belonging, and ...
‘Why the “You” in an Afterlife Wouldn’t Really Be You’ https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/why-the-ldquo-you-rdquo-in-an-afterlife-wouldnt-really-be-you/ Shermer states that a copy of your memories is no different than your twin but twins never had the same memories to begin with. If one’s genes and connectomes could be exactly copied and functional then there would be […]
Scientific American Letter to the Editors, “Who Are You?”, July ...
May 31, 2017 | By Christopher G. Fichtner, MD and Howard B. Moss, MD. Comment by Doug Berger, Psychiatirst in Tokyo, Japan This article seems quite reasonable, and is in severe contradistinction to other recent articles in the PT on marijuana: 1. Marijuana and the Psychiatric Patient, Psychiatric Times April […]
Medical Marijuana and Mental Health: Cannabis Use in Psychiatric Practice
May 31, 2017, By Rahil R. Jummani, MD, Emily Hirsch, and Glenn S. Hirsch, MD. Comment by Douglas Berger, Psychiatrist in Tokyo, Japan This is a good article, though with some fuzzy parts: 1. The authors go to great lengths to describe the difference in DSM-5 and ICD-10 diagnostic criteria […]
Are We Overdiagnosing and Overtreating ADHD?
Doug Berger*, Douglas Eames, Pablo Prados-Ruano Meguro Counseling Center, Tokyo, Japan Received 3 April 2008; accepted 9 April 2008 Abstract This paper describes the current state of mental health care for Western expatriates in Tokyo, Japan. Types of therapists, patient demographics, illness breakdown, and psychiatric medications in Japan are discussed […]
Mental health care of Western expatriates in Tokyo
Psychiatry is the branch of medicine focused on the diagnosis, treatment and prevention of mental, emotional and behavioral disorders. A psychiatrist is a medical doctor (an M.D. or D.O.) who specializes in mental health, including substance use disorders. Psychiatrists are qualified to assess both the mental and physical aspects of […]
What Is Psychiatry?
Doug Berger, MD, PhD Dr Berger is in private practice in Japan. Article originally published May 12, 2009, in Psychiatric Times “An Epidemic of Depression” by Wakefield and Horwitz (Psychiatric Times, November 2008, page 44) raised the issue that DSM does not take into account the context in which symptoms […]
An Epidemic of Depression
The most commonly prescribed psychiatric drugs are antidepressants. They treat depression and anxiety. The first ones, isoniazid and iproniazid, were discovered by accident. They were developed after the Second World War by a Swiss pharmaceutical company (from leftover German V2 rocket fuel!) as tuberculosis treatments. Some tubercular patients taking the drugs became energetic and even rowdy, […]
The fascinating history of antidepressants.
Imagine being so overwhelmed with fear and anxiety that you never venture outside of your house and that, being so overcome by social anxiety, you withdraw completely from any social interaction. This is the harsh reality for a growing number of people made completely immobilized by their mental health condition. […]