323 Results
Risk-Based Gun Removal Laws
In 2014, the American Psychiatric Association (APA) published a “Resource Document on Access to Firearms by People with Mental Disorders,”1 which addressed the complex relationship between firearms, mental illness, suicide, and violence. The document highlighted the limitations of existing legislative strategies, such as the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS), in combating the problems of gun-related suicide and violence in the United States. It noted that registries like N
Psychiatric advance directives
Advance directives were developed in the context of end of life care and are generally associated with medical and surgical decision-making for permanently incapacitated patients. Within psychiatry, interest in advance directives has been expressed as a means of facilitating the treatment of individuals afflicted with serious mental illnesses (Appelbaum, 1979). These disorders are typified by recurrent episodes of severe, cognition-impairing symptomatology that often result in decisional i
Access to firearms by people with mental ilnness
Resource Document on Access to Firearms by People with Mental Illness Approved by the Joint Reference Committee, June 2009 Reports of mass shootings and other serious firearmrelated violence, such as the Columbine shootings of 1999 and the Virginia Tech shootings in 2007, are often accompanied by indications that the perpetrator had some emotional disturbance or mental illness. These incidents have raised growing concern about access to firearms (1) by people with mental disorders. Current f
Cultural Psychiatry as a Specific Field of Study Relevant to the Assessment and Care of All Patients
The comparative study of mental health and mental illness among diverse societies, nations, and cultures and the multiple interrelationships of mental disorders with cultural environments have occupied the interest of individual psychiatrists and psychiatric organizations in the U.S. and abroad for many years. The growth of international collaboration in psychiatry since World War II, the many advances in clinical methods and research, particularly in the last several decades, have greatly enhan
Neuroimaging
The application of neuroimaging technology in psychiatric research has revolutionized clinical neuroscience perspectives on the pathophysiology of the major psychiatric disorders. Research using a variety of types of neuroimaging techniques has shown that these conditions are associated with abnormalities of brain function, structure and receptor pharmacology. These data also corroborate the conclusions reached from genetic, endocrine, and clinical pharmacology research involving these disorders
Physician Health Programs in the Treatment of Substance Use Disorders in Physicians
In 1974, the American Medical Association (AMA) acknowledged physician impairment from alcoholism and drug dependence occurs, and recognized alcoholism and addiction as illnesses. Physician illness and impairment exist on a continuum with illness typically predating impairment, often by many years. This is a critically important distinction. Illness is the existence of a disease. Impairment is a functional classification and implies the inability of the person affected by disease to perform spec
Core Principle for Alternative Payment Models for Behavioral Health
The APA’s Position Statement enunciates 10 principles. These are presented below along with their supporting background information. The first principle declares that the predominant goals for behavioral health APMs should be defined as increasing access and improving quality of care for individuals with mental health and substance use disorders (MH/SUDs), in order to improve outcomes.
Guidelines to District Branches for a policy on physician impairment
The American Psychiatric Association has resolved to promote the mental and physical health of all physicians toward the goal of insuring optimum care of patients, protecting the public from possible harm by an impaired physician, preventing loss of valuable medical manpower, and helping the impaired physician regain health and productivity. The APA recognizes that psychiatrists, like other physicians, are at risk for impairment by mental and physical disorders, including addiction (or substance