Study Finds Settling Is Better Than Going to Trial

  August 8, 2008 Study Finds Settling Is Better Than Going to Trial By JONATHAN D. GLATER Note to victims of accidents, medical malpractice, broken contracts and the like: When you sue, make a deal. That is the clear lesson of a soon-to-be-released study of civil lawsuits that has found that most of the plaintiffs […]

Birth Trauma & PTSD

Birth Trauma: Stress Disorder Afflicts Moms Study Suggests That PTSD May Be More Common Than Previously Believed By RACHEL ZIMMERMAN August 5, 2008; Page D1 Amid the debate over how to effectively manage maternal mental-health disorders, a new type of postpartum illness is gaining attention: post-traumatic-stress disorder due to childbirth. PTSD is most commonly associated […]

PTSD & Sleep

Sleep is the enemy A former Marine fights nightmares of Iraq by struggling to stay awake. Millions, veteran and civilian, face a nightly battle. By Jia-Rui Chong Los Angeles Times Staff Writer August 5, 2008 SAN DIEGO — By the time the sun began to rise one recent Friday over his Mira Mesa neighborhood, Mitch […]

Pentagon spends $300M to study troops’ stress, trauma

Pentagon spends $300M to study troops’ stress, trauma By Gregg Zoroya, USA TODAY The Pentagon is spending an unprecedented $300 million this summer on research for post-traumatic stress disorder and traumatic brain injury, offering hope not only for troops but hundreds of thousands of civilians. The money — the most spent in one year on […]

Can Depression Change Your DNA?

Can Depression Change Your DNA? By Psych Central News Editor       Reviewed by John M. Grohol, Psy.D. on July 31, 2008 Thursday, Jul 31 (Psych Central) — New research points to significant modifications of an important gene that suggests depression may play a role in changing the very makeup of the brain.Researchers at the […]

Meth or Madness? Methamphetamine Use and Mental Illness – by David Y. Kan, MD

This PowerPoint slide show was created by David Y. Kan, MD to accompany a talk he gave to a Substance Abuse Psychiatric Residents’ Seminar at the Ft. Miley VA Medical Center in San Francisco in 2007. Dr. Kan is also a board certified forensic psychiatrist and is Assistant Clincial Professor, Department of Psychiatry, Division of […]

Stalkers: Violence Risk Assessment by David Y. Kan, MD

Dr. David Kan, a forensic psychiatrist and Assistant Clinical Professor of Psychiatry, Ft. Miley VA Medical Center, University of California , San Francisco, created this PowerPoint slide presentation on Risk Assessment of Stalkers for a talk he gave on 11-17-04. To download a pdf version of Dr. Kan’s PowerPoint presentation, click here: Download Stalker_Talk_11-17-04.pdf

Best Practices in Veterans’ Psychiatric Care by David Y. Kan MD

This PowerPoint slide presentation illustrates the Best Practices in Psychiatric Medical Care available through the VA system. It is a reflection of the ideas and experience of David Kan MD who oversees substance abuse care at the San Francisco VA Medical Center at Ft. Miley. Dr. Kan is also a board certified forensic psychiatrist and […]

“Proximate Cause” & Scientific Causation

Forensic Psychiatrists, Psychologists and all testifying expert physicians are expected to offer their opinions in both civil and criminal matters to the standard of proof of “reasonable medical certainty” (“reasonable medical probability” in California). However, the legal definitions of causation (proximate cause) and the notion of causation from the perspective of behavioral science are not the same, and sometimes actually diverge. This article by Dr. Levy attempts to explain those differences, explicate the potential dilemmas, and suggest some pitfalls for the testifying medical-legal expert to avoid when discussing “causation” in its legal context.

William Daubert v. Merrill Dow

The following is the appellate opinion in Frye v. United States which was affirmed by the Court of Appeals, District of Columbia in 1923. Until the Daubert v. Merrill Dow US Supreme Court decision in 1993 and the Daubert standard for expert testimony replaced the Kelly/Frye standard in Federal matters (Frye still remains the standard […]

Frye v. United States

The following is the appellate opinion in Frye v. United States which was affirmed by the Court of Appeals, District of Columbia in 1923. Until the Daubert v. Merrill Dow US Supreme Court decision in 1993 and the Daubert standard for expert testimony replaced the Kelly/Frye standard in Federal matters (Frye still remains the standard […]

Diagnostic Criteria for Alcohol Dependence & Abuse

The following are the diagnostic criteria for Alcohol Dependence and Abuse, asscording to the Diagnostic & Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition, Text Revised (DSM-IVTR), American Psychiatric Association, Washington, D.C. 2000. 303.90 Alcohol Dependence Refer, in addition, to the general text and criteria for Substance Dependence. Physiological dependence on alcohol is indicated by evidence […]

ADA: Mental Illness in the Workplace: Legal and Psychiatric Implications of Mentally Disabled Employees

This is an original article, published in San Francisco Attorney Magazine (2001) that discusses the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and the California Fair Employment & Housing Act (FEHA) in relation to protection and accommodation issues for employees with mental disabilities.  Download mental_illness_in_workplace.PDF Mental Illness in the Workplace: Legal and Psychiatric Implications of Mentally Disabled […]

The Status of Rorschach in Clinical and Forensic Practice

The following is an official statement by the Board of Trustees of the Society for Personality Assessment affirming that the Rorschach Inkblot Test possesses reliability and validity similar to that of other generally accepted personality assessment instruments and its responsible use in personality assessment is appropriate and justified (JOURNAL OF PERSONALITY ASSESSMENT, 85(2), 219-237, copyright […]

Study Indicates Patients with Generalized Anxiety Disorder May Be More Likely to have Family Members with Anxiety Problems

Study indicates patients with GAD may be more likely to have family members with anxiety problems. MedWire (7/31, Davenport) reported, "Patients with generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) are more likely than healthy individuals to have family members with anxiety problems," according to a study published in the May 28 online edition of the Journal of Clinical […]

Alzheimer’s experts disagree on theories underlying drug treatments.

APA Headlines August 1, 2008 Alzheimer’s experts disagree on theories underlying drug treatments. The Economist (7/31) reported that experts on Alzheimer’s “disagree fundamentally about what drugs aimed at treating” the disease “should be trying to do.” The dominant “school of thought…argues that the disease wreaks its damage by causing the formation of the plaques” made […]