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Relationship of Body-Focused Repetitive Behavior Disorders to OCD
Opinion statementObsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) and body-focused repetitive behaviors (BFRBs) have demonstrated considerable presence and impact among clinical populations. As consistent with any treatment approach, necessary intervention among these disorders begins with a comprehensive evaluation of client ’s symptoms, with particular attention placed on potential comorbidities. Common practice among clinicians identifies exposure and response prevention (ERP) as a first line treatment of OCD. However, among client’s demonstrating BFRBs, habit reversal therapy (HRT) or novel emotion-based treatmen ts (e.g., acce...
Source: Current Treatment Options in Psychiatry - October 7, 2016 Category: Psychiatry Source Type: research

Diagnostic Challenges in Youth With Bipolar Disorder
Opinion statementThe purpose of this review is to understand the diagnostic challenges found in children and adolescents with bipolar disorder (BD). BD youth presentation tends to be atypical when compared with adults. BD in children is characterized by a more chronic course, rapid cycling, with multiple cycles in the same day. Cardinal symptoms include elevated mood, grandiosity, and decreased need for sleep, while the most common symptoms are increased energy, distractibility, and pressured speech. Overlapping symptoms with other psychiatric disorders and high rates of comorbidity complicate the diagnosis and can lead to...
Source: Current Treatment Options in Psychiatry - October 4, 2016 Category: Psychiatry Source Type: research

Developing Psychiatric Biomarkers: a Review Focusing on the Error-Related Negativity as a Biomarker for Anxiety
Opinion statementEfforts to identify psychiatric biomarkers that confer clinical utility have not yet been as successful as other areas of medicine. The current review evaluates one promising psychiatric biomarker (the error-related negativity (ERN) —a neural index of error processing) in an attempt to outline a roadmap for the development of future biological markers of risk for psychopathology. Integrating suggestions from the Biomarkers Definition Working Group into a framework of psychopathology, with an emphasis on a developmental perspe ctive, we demonstrate that the ERN relates to diagnoses and dimensional anxiety...
Source: Current Treatment Options in Psychiatry - October 2, 2016 Category: Psychiatry Source Type: research

Clinical Aspects of Hair Pulling, Skin Picking, and Nail Biting
Opinion StatementBody-focused repetitive behaviors (BFRBs) include conditions such as hair pulling, skin picking, nail biting, lip or cheek chewing/biting, thumb or finger sucking, and nose picking. Hair pulling, skin picking, and nail biting have received the most attention in the empirical literature. BFRBs are believed to reduce emotional states such as anxiety, tension, or boredom, through negative reinforcement (e.g., [1]), or to satisfy a need for sensory stimulation, through positive reinforcement (e.g., [2]). For individuals with these disorders who have impaired functioning from these behaviors, cognitive behavior...
Source: Current Treatment Options in Psychiatry - September 30, 2016 Category: Psychiatry Source Type: research

Current Treatment Options for Cognitive Impairment in Bipolar Disorder: a Review
Opinion statementCognitive impairment is a key feature of bipolar disorder (BD) which often persists into euthymia. This impairment appears to be independent, to an extent, of mood symptoms and is associated with deficits in overall functioning. Priority should thus be given to research investigating adjunctive treatments aimed at improving cognitive functioning in BD. This paper systematically reviews studies specifically examining changes in cognitive functioning in relation to pharmacological and/or psychosocial interventions in adults with BD. Eighteen studies were included in the review: 11 examining pharmacological i...
Source: Current Treatment Options in Psychiatry - September 8, 2016 Category: Psychiatry Source Type: research

Homelessness and Addiction: Causes, Consequences and Interventions
< h3 class= " a-plus-plus " > Opinion Statement < /h3 > < p class= " a-plus-plus " > Homeless individuals suffer from poverty, disaffiliation, personal vulnerability and often poor health. The main concerns from a public health point of view are poor health and barriers to health care. Reviews have identified substance use disorders as a priority among these disorders. Substance use disorders are under-treated and can constitute a barrier to treatment. The current review summarizes recent findings and up-to-date evidence on substance use disorders in this marginalized population. Focusing on treatment-relevant factors, the...
Source: Current Treatment Options in Psychiatry - July 21, 2016 Category: Psychiatry Source Type: research

The Potential Use of Neuroimaging Biomarkers in the Treatment of Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder
Opinion statement Predicting treatment outcome in obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) has become an important research priority given the prevalence and disability associated with the disorder and the fact that different effective treatments exist. Here, we summarize recent studies that have used neuroimaging to predict treatment outcome across three different treatment modalities: psychological treatment (exposure and response prevention), medication, and neurosurgery. Although several neural baseline variables have been shown to predict treatment outcome in OCD, results are so far not conclusive. We hig...
Source: Current Treatment Options in Psychiatry - July 11, 2016 Category: Psychiatry Source Type: research

Approaches to the Diagnosis and Treatment of OCD with Comorbid Tic Disorders
Opinion statement Bidirectional overlap has long been described between obsessive–compulsive disorder (OCD) and tic disorders. Similar features, including underlying neurobiological genesis in frontal-striatal circuitry, familiality, relatively early onset, waxing and waning course, and overlapping phenomenology in repetitive behaviors, suggest different variations of the same disorder. Nevertheless, some differences have been described between OCD and tic disorders: tics begin early in childhood and typically attenuate or remit by late adolescence, whereas OCD tends to onset later and persist, and tic ...
Source: Current Treatment Options in Psychiatry - July 10, 2016 Category: Psychiatry Source Type: research

Opioid Use in the Twenty First Century: Similarities and Differences Across National Borders
Opinion statement The global prevalence in the use of opiates and opioids has remained stable, though there were some unprecedented recent increases in opioid use and associated mortality and morbidity in the USA. Internationally, there is a strong tendency for consolidation of drug treatment strategies in favor of more systematic, structured, and balanced approaches to regional and national drug policies. However, there are considerable differences in the scope, focus, and implementation of national drug policies and the political context is shaping drug prevention, treatment, and rehabilitation efforts ...
Source: Current Treatment Options in Psychiatry - July 8, 2016 Category: Psychiatry Source Type: research

Impulsivity and Attentional Bias in Cocaine Dependence: Does Familial Substance Misuse Contribute to Neurobehavioral Performance?
Opinion statement The goal of the present study was to examine the relationship between family history of alcohol and illicit drug abuse and impulsivity in cocaine users and healthy controls. One hundred and thirty-five individuals recruited for a larger study (58 cocaine users and 77 healthy controls) with and without family history of substance misuse participated in the study. Individuals completed a computer-administered interview regarding family history of substance misuse and neurobehavioral measures of impulsivity and attentional bias. Family history of substance misuse was found to be associated ...
Source: Current Treatment Options in Psychiatry - July 7, 2016 Category: Psychiatry Source Type: research

Schizo-Obsessive Disorder: the Epidemiology, Diagnosis, and Treatment of Comorbid Schizophrenia and OCD
Opinion statement Schizophrenia and obsessive–compulsive disorder (OCD) appear to share clinical features and tend to co-occur more commonly than would be expected by chance. Obsessive–compulsive symptoms (OCS) are commonly observed in schizophrenia. Large-scale follow-up studies are needed to probe this intriguing relationship and to examine the diagnostic stability of the subgroup of patients, who present with features of both. In addition, there is a need for valid and reliable diagnostic instruments in this population. Treatment of schizo-obsessive patients is a challenging endeavor. Though the ev...
Source: Current Treatment Options in Psychiatry - July 4, 2016 Category: Psychiatry Source Type: research

Novel Therapeutics for Addiction: Behavioral Economic  and Neuroeconomic Approaches
< h3 class= " a-plus-plus " > Opinion statement < /h3 > < p class= " a-plus-plus " > Behavioral economic and neuroeconomic understandings of addiction offer both established and empirically supported treatments as well as a foundation from which promising new treatment options are emerging. Addiction must be understood and treated as a state of pathological overvaluation of the reinforcement of drug use fueled by an imbalance of the competing neurobehavioral decision systems that govern decision making (CNDS theory). The CNDS theory presents two systems, the executive and impulsive, which are dysregulated in reinforcer pat...
Source: Current Treatment Options in Psychiatry - July 1, 2016 Category: Psychiatry Source Type: research

Novel Therapeutics for Addiction: Behavioral Economic and Neuroeconomic Approaches
Opinion statement Behavioral economic and neuroeconomic understandings of addiction offer both established and empirically supported treatments as well as a foundation from which promising new treatment options are emerging. Addiction must be understood and treated as a state of pathological overvaluation of the reinforcement of drug use fueled by an imbalance of the competing neurobehavioral decision systems that govern decision making (CNDS theory). The CNDS theory presents two systems, the executive and impulsive, which are dysregulated in reinforcer pathology by greater relative control of the impulsi...
Source: Current Treatment Options in Psychiatry - July 1, 2016 Category: Psychiatry Source Type: research

Misdiagnosis of ADHD in Individuals Diagnosed With Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder: Guidelines for Practitioners
Opinion statement Attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) are reported to frequently co-occur, particularly in children. However, recent research undermines the viability of such comorbidity. Research further suggests that OCD is associated with deficient cognitive functioning, particularly in the domain of executive function. This may be the underlying reason for the high co-occurrence rates of ADHD reported in OCD samples, compared to the relatively low rates of OCD reported in ADHD samples. Furthermore, a contrasting neurobiological, phenomenological, pha...
Source: Current Treatment Options in Psychiatry - June 29, 2016 Category: Psychiatry Source Type: research

Erratum to: Improving Treatment Adherence in Schizophrenia
(Source: Current Treatment Options in Psychiatry)
Source: Current Treatment Options in Psychiatry - June 10, 2016 Category: Psychiatry Source Type: research