Mary is 72, has stopped eating and drinking, is profoundly depressed and believes she deserves to die.You consider giving her antidepressants but you know they may take a few weeks to work. She might die unless you intervene within a few days. A colleague suggests ECT (electro-convulsive therapy). What should...
Richard Winter is a psychiatrist and theologian who says one of the reasons why people are unsatisfied with life is because society is preoccupied with airbrushed and computer enhanced features, perfect bodies, perfect homes, designer babies. He says that people can be grouped into 1) non-perfectionists 2) healthy perfectionists and...
Are you a driven person? Do you think you drive yourself too much? This book will help you answer these questions and do something about it. Pamela Evans is a doctor who is also a counsellor, and investigates some of the reasons behind spiritual 'drivenness' and 'workaholism'. 'Anything that's used...
Do women experience psychological reactions after abortion? If so, what are they? Can we predict them? What do we make of the case of a woman who is applying for legal aid to sue the NHS for the psychological trauma she claims to have experienced after an abortion?[1] What are...
A daughter is killed by her father, who receives a suspended sentence for manslaughter. One of the many issues raised by this sad episode is the adequacy of care provided by the mental health services. What are the 'facts' of this case, in so much as we know them from the...
In the last decade, mental health services have received much adverse publicity, particularly over homicides committed by psychiatric patients. This has given rise to the mistaken public perception, especially in the print media, that many psychiatric patients pose an increasing danger to other people. In fact the number of homicides...
What then is psychiatry? Psychiatry is quite simply the diagnosis and management of mental disorder. This covers a vast array of conditions from dementia and delirium to depression. Because of the emphasis on physical medicine in medical training, diagnoses like depression may sound rather vague and unscientific. However, with recognised international...