Tuesday, May 10, 2005

Onset of antipsychotic action may occur within first 24 hours  Psychiatry Matters item on a study published in the American Journal of Psychiatry - "Investigators have found that the onset of antipsychotic action can occur within the first 2 to 24 hours of treatment, contradicting the belief that there is a "delayed onset" of antipsychotic response. The antipsychotic response is considered to be around 2 to 3 weeks, with any earlier improvements thought to reflect nonspecific behavioral drug effects, such as agitation, excitement, and uncooperativeness, note Shitij Kapur and colleagues from the University of Toronto in Ontario, Canada."  
  

Serotonin's Effects Extend Far Beyond Brain  HealthDay News story at Yahoo - "The brain chemical serotonin is present in embryos long before neurons form and plays a role in determining the position of organs during embryonic development, scientists report. These findings about serotonin, which is involved in the transmission of signals between neurons and plays a role in anxiety and mood disorders, could have a potential impact in many fields, including neuroscience, developmental genetics, evolutionary biology and human teratology -- a branch of pathology and embryology that focuses on abnormal development and congenital malformations, the researchers said."  
  

Should the mental health evaluator decide child custody? Blackwell Publishing press release - "The current issue of Family Court Review addresses the controversy surrounding the role of the mental health evaluation in child custody cases, led by an article by Timothy Tippins and Jeffrey Wittmann which argues that the child's best interests are a legal and socio-moral construct, not a psychological one. Tippins and Wittmann write that psychologists have no valid, reliable methods for determining custody plans for children, yet often do. 'There is no empirically supportable method or principle by which an evaluator can come to a conclusion with respect to best interests entirely by resorting to the knowledge base of the mental health profession,' the authors assert. Their article proposes a model for what clinicians can ethically present in custody matters, carving the psychological evaluation process into four layers which work toward the core issue: the best interest of the child."