Latest Clinical & Research News
Specialty: Psychiatry
For many people, their first interaction with Brigham and Women’s Hospital is through the Emergency Department (ED). Usually, they are in a desperate state. As such, the ED is a critical place for patients who need acute psychiatric care.
The opioid epidemic in the United States is entering its third decade, and Brigham and Women’s Hospital has had a longstanding commitment to deliver care to those facing addiction to opioids as well as alcohol and other drugs. The Brigham’s Bridge Clinic, established in 2018, is the latest program aimed at reducing barriers to treatment. The clinic provides urgent, on-demand care while also helping patients transition to other, longer-term programs.
It’s not uncommon for people who have neurological disorders to experience behavioral and emotional symptoms. The field of neuropsychiatry is dedicated to addressing this issue and bringing a neurobiological understanding to the field of psychiatry.
Thanks to imaging technologies like CT, MRI and PET, researchers who study the brain are able to peer inside its “black box” to learn how different parts of the brain interact and how those interactions change in response to disease or injury.
Arranging psychiatric care can be a logistical challenge. Appointments usually need to be scheduled months in advance, and missed visits may result in removal from patient rolls. This situation is often a critical obstacle to care, especially because people who require psychiatric care are likely to struggle to deal with these sorts of challenges.
Perimenopausal mood changes and depression are experienced in some form by about one-fourth of women undergoing the transition to menopause. Yet until recently, there was no formal direction for healthcare providers in identifying and treating this condition. That changed in September 2018, when a panel led by the National Network of Depression Centers with the support of the North American Menopause Society published the first-ever guidelines.
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Preexisting mental illness and substance abuse disorders are common in patients being treated in intensive care units (ICUs), as is delirium. There is increasing appreciation for the impact of these conditions on overall health outcomes, length of hospital stay and mortality.
Consultation-Liaison (C-L) psychiatry is one of several subspecialties in which a psychiatrist may choose to concentrate after completing a psychiatry residency program. Brigham and Women’s Hospital’s C-L fellowship program is one of the largest in the country, training six fellows in this critical field of psychiatry every year.
At Brigham and Women’s Hospital, the Division of Women’s Mental Health in the Department of Psychiatry has built a reputation for both its large faculty and its close collaboration with the departments of Obstetrics and Gynecology and of Newborn Medicine.
Consultation-Liaison (C-L) Psychiatry has been an important component of psychiatry for over 70 years and a certified subspecialty under the American Board of Medical Specialties since 2004. Brigham and Women’s Hospital has one of the largest C-L divisions and one of the largest C-L fellowship programs in the country, with a mission to maintain strong bonds between psychiatry and other specialties of medicine.