Dear Colleagues:
Welcome to the April issue of Innovations in Clinical Neuroscience. In this month’s “The Interface,” Sansone and Sansone discuss five major studies that examined the prevalence and type of personality disorders in community samples in the United States. The authors review the prevalence data.
Next, Busner et al review and discuss several psychopathology research assessment tools that they believe can be used easily and productively in clinical practice.
Following this, in this month’s “Psychiatry and Neurology” department, Sanders and Gillig review the usefulness of evaluating reflexes in psychiatric patients. The authors describe muscle stretch (deep tendon) reflexes and pathological reflexes, including the extensor plantar (Babinski) and primitive release reflexes. The authors also review the significance of these reflexes in common psychiatric and neurologic conditions and describe the methods for eliciting these signs.
Next, Talih reviews symptom overlap between schizophrenia and narcolepsy. The differences and similarities between narcolepsy and schizophrenia are discussed in the context of two cases. The author recommends that psychiatrists consider narcolepsy in the differential diagnosis when faced with refractory psychosis.
Following this, Demler and Trigoboff share the results of a retrospective chart review in order to evaluate the effect of concomitant medications used in a state psychiatric hospital on clozapine-induced blood dyscrasias. The authors also reviewed the records for a pilot sample of 26 patients with reported clozapine-related adverse drug reactions between January 1, 2007, and June 30, 2009. The authors report on the medications that had a statistically significant impact on the incidence of clozapine-induced blood dyscrasias, as well as the possible duration of medication use prior to induction of an adverse drug reaction.
Finally, Christensen and Ramos describe a unique case of shared delusional disorder between a son and his elderly parents. In addition to describing this unusual case, the authors provide a brief review of shared delusional disorder, including evidence-based therapeutic interventions.
Sincerely,
Amir Kalali, MD
Editor, Innovations in Clinical Neuroscience
