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Evaluation And Treatment Of Demented Elderly, Barry Rovner, M.D.

Jefferson Journal of Psychiatry

There are currently 27 million people over 65 in the United States and this number will double in the next 50 years. This will confront psychiatrists and other physicians with the care of many elderly patients with dementia. These patients will often require hospitalization when ill because their mental, physical, and social functioning tends to break down at once, overwhelming families and outpatient physicians. Once hospitalized, they require accurate diagnoses, multidisciplinary care, and planning for rehabilitation from the on set of the hospitalization. However, dementia is often undiagnosed and untreated in university hospitals as well as in primary care clinics …

Commentary On "Multiple Personality And Channeling", Richard P. Kluft, M.D.

Jefferson Journal of Psychiatry

In her paper, "Multiple Personality and Channeling," Dr. Rogers compares and contrasts the two phenomena, tries to outline some distinctions between them, and expresses concern lest persons who have the ability to channel be pathologized for their capacity" to engage in a creative social activity which is currently very much in vogue" (p.11 ) (1). I appreciate her efforts and here will offer some additional observations and reflections from my own work and experience.

In Response: The Place Of Psychotherapy Training In Residency Programs, Homer C. Curtis, M.D.

Jefferson Journal of Psychiatry

As a belated response to the debate about the value of teaching psychotherapy in psychiatric residency training, (Jefferson Journal of Psychiatry, Vol. 5(I):54-66, 1987) I would like to add my voice to the affirmative side. That there is such a debate seems symptomatic of an unfortunate and unnecessary misuse of important advances in neurobiology to justify the sidelining of psychodynamic psychotherapy. A search of the psychiatric literature of recent years reveals an emphasis on biological psychiatry and a relative neglect of psychotherapy. A similar trend has been noted in some residency programs and in the annual meetings of the American …

In Response: Maintenance Ect, Max Fink, Md

Jefferson Journal of Psychiatry

Therapy resistance, relapsing illness, and rapid cycling are aspects of chronic affective illness that continue to frustrate us. ECT was re-introduced to answer the problem of therapy resistant depression. In their recent review, Matzen et al. (I), report their experience in eight cases treated with maintenance ECT. They argue that maintenance ECT should also be considered for relapsing depressive illness.

No systematic study of maintenance ECT has been undertaken since the early I950s, and yet, as reported by Kramer (2) it continues to be used. Kramer directed inquiries to members of the International Association for the Advancement of Electrotherapy. Of …