Forensic Psychiatric Associates Medical Corporation

California Society of Addiction 2011 State of the Art Conference

editor — Fri, 30 Sep 2011 08:49:59 +0000

State of the Art Course To Meet October 12th -15th, Hyatt Regency Long Beach, Long Beach, California

This is a link to the California Society of Addiction Medicine 2011 State of the Art Conference.
fpamed forensic psychiatrist and addiction specialist, David Y. Kan, MD, is the conference chair.

http://www.associationinternet.com/csam/csam.html

The Conference will be featuring some of the heaviest hitters in all of addiction medicine including
Garrett O’Connor, Kenneth Lyons Jones (he discovered fetal alcohol syndrome), Frank Vocci, and more.

ASAM’s 2011 Course on the State of the Art in Addiction Medicine will meet October 12-15
at the Hyatt Regency Long Beach in Long Beach, California.

For more information or to register, visit the ASAM Website at WWW.ASAM.ORG,
phone the ASAM Meetings staff at 301-656-3920, or register on site.

Assessing Emotional Damages in Multi-Plaintiff Litigation

editor — Tue, 21 Dec 2010 11:56:56 +0000

This article, written by forensic psychiatrist Mark Levy MD together with civil trial attorney, Michael Larin, Esq., describes fpamed’s unique team approach to assessing emotional damages in multi-plaintiff litigation.

Download FTD-Assessing Emotional Damages-LarinLevy

Child Custody & Divorce: An Overview PowerPoint Slide Show

editor — Thu, 18 Nov 2010 23:00:59 +0000

A Presentation by Anlee Kuo, J.D., M.D., Sarah Hall, Ph.D., Mark Levy, M.D.

This is a presentation given on November 18, 2010 to the Family Law Section of the Bar Association of San Francisco. It is based upon a similar presentation given by Anlee Kuo, J.D., M.D., on June 6, 2010, at the 19th World Congress of the International Association for Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Allied Professionals, Beijing, China

It consists of an overview of the American legal concepts of divorce and child custody and the roles of the forensic child and adolescent psychiatrist and psychologist in assessing divorcing parents and their children to help develop custody decisions that best serve the emotional needs of the children and their parents.

Dr. Kuo is an Assistant Clinical Professor of Psychiatry, The Children’s Center, Langley Porter Psychiatric Institute, School of Medicine University of California San Francisco

Dr. Hall is in the private practice of adult and child, clinical and forensic neuropsychology. She received her BA and PhD in clinical psychology from the University of California Berkeley and trained in pediatric neuropsychology at Childrens’ Hospital, Oakland, California

Dr. Levy is an Assistant Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at UCSF where he teaches in the Forensic Psychiatry Fellowship and is the Medical Director of Forensic Psychiatric Associates Medical Corporation (fpamed), a specialized forensic psychiatric and psychological practice providing medical-legal consultation to attorneys. In addtion to Drs. Levy, Kuo and Hall, there are 3 other forensic psychiatrists and 1 other forensic neuropsychologist who are part of the fpamed consulting group.

Download 11-18-10 BASF Child Custody Presentation

Forensic Psychiatry and Psychology – What We Do

editor — Thu, 18 Nov 2010 00:11:42 +0000

Our primary skill is explaining complex medical and behavioral information in a readily understood and accurate manner. In the legal arena, as in our clinical practices, teaching, and scholarship, clear communication is our central goal.

We reach our opinions and offer testimony based on evidence, not simply our authority. Integrating the data from medical records, legal documents, psychological testing and interviews, we answer questions at the interface of law and mental health based on solid science and clinical experience.

Our consultation, reports and testimony aim to illuminate the mental health issues in legal matters. We consult in both civil and criminal matters and to both sides of the bar.

We find our work engaging and demonstrate our enthusiasm, curiosity, and care to the attorneys who retain us and the lawyers, judges and juries who hear our testimony.

Meet our team of experts…

9th Circuit Rules That “Zone of Danger” Sufficient to Justify PTSD Claims

editor — Thu, 01 Jul 2010 10:48:46 +0000

The 9th circuit federal appeals court majority said Tuesday that a previous ruling, and an earlier Supreme Court decision, allow an emotonal damages suit alleging Posttraumatic Stress Disorder by a seaman who was in a negligently operated vessel’s “zone of danger.”

Download 9th Circuit PTSD in Zone of Danger

PowerPoint Slides from Lecture for Attorneys on Working with Traumatized Clients – by Susan M. Meffert, MD, MPH

editor — Sun, 16 May 2010 18:00:00 +0000

This is a slide show accompanying a lecture that Dr. Meffert gave to attorneys discussing the issue of working with traumatized clients.

Download Example of Lecture on working with Traumatized Clients for Attorneys

A Prospective Study of Trait Anger and PTSD Symptoms in Police by Susan M. Meffert, MD, MPH et al

editor — Sun, 16 May 2010 17:48:43 +0000

It is unknown whether anger is a risk factor for the development of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms, arises as a consequence of PTSD, or both. Two hypotheses were tested in 180 police recruits: Greater trait anger during training will predict greater PTSD symptoms at one year; greater PTSD symptoms at one year will predict greater state anger at one year. Both hypotheses were confirmed, suggesting that trait anger is a risk factor for PTSD symptoms, but that PTSD symptoms are also associated with an increase of state anger. Increased anger is important not only because of the impact it has on individual distress and physical health, but also because of its potential public health impact.

Expansion of Liberty Interests Under Parole Conditions: Beyond Anti-psychotics by Susan M. Meffert, MD, MPH, John Chamberlain, MD

editor — Sun, 16 May 2010 15:43:23 +0000

The United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit decided the case of United States v. Cope, 506 F.3d 908 (9th Cir. 2007), on November 5, 2007. At issue were the imposition of a lifetime of supervised release and the special conditions of release.. Dr. Meffert discusses this case and the underlying issues.

From Meffert, S.M, Chamberlain, J. The Journal of the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law , Volume 37, Number 2, 2009

Download Expansion of Liberty Interests Under Parole Conditions, Beyond Antipsychotics

Darfur Refugees in Cairo: Mental Health and Interpersonal Conflict in the Aftermath of Genocide – Susan Meffert MD, MPH, Charles Marmar, MD

editor — Sun, 16 May 2010 15:34:09 +0000

Hundreds of thousands of Darfur people affected by the Sudanese genocide have fled to Cairo, Egypt, in search of assistance. Collaborating with Africa and Middle East Refugee Assistance (AMERA), the authors conducted a mental health care needs assessment among Darfur refugees in Cairo. Information was collected using individual and focus group interviews to identify gaps in mental health care and develop understandings of emotional and relationship problems. The refugee mental health care system has a piecemeal structure with gaps in outpatient services. There is moderate to severe emotional distress among many Darfur refugees, including symptoms of depression and trauma, and interpersonal conflict, both domestic violence and broader community conflict, elevated relative to pregenocide levels. Given the established relationships between symptoms of depression/traumatic stress and interpersonal violence, improving mental health is important for both preventing mental health decompensation and stemming future cycles of intra- and intergroup conflict.

Download Darfur Refugees in Cairo

Edna Foa, PhD – Prolonged Exposure Therapy for Posttraumatic Stress Disorder

editor — Tue, 04 May 2010 01:17:45 +0000

TIME Magazine

Edna Foa, Ph.D.

By Jeffrey Kluger Thursday, Apr. 29, 2010

Human beings are hardwired to fear things — the lion in the grass, the assailant in the alley — and if one of those fears gets realized, we may never settle down again. The pain associated with that condition is known as posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), a mix of depression, anxiety, anger and isolation. No one is doing more to end that suffering than psychologist Edna Foa, 72, of the University of Pennsylvania.

The severity of PTSD is matched by the horror of the things that set it off — rape, childhood sexual abuse, natural disasters. And then there's war. Half a million veterans from the Vietnam era alone may suffer from PTSD — and up to 300,000 from the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Too many cope with the disorder by working to exhaustion, drinking to unconsciousness and never, ever talking about it.

Foa, who studied first at Bar-Ilan University in Israel and later in the U.S., always found that unsatisfactory. Thirty years ago, she began studying post-rape trauma, cobbling together therapeutic bits from other anxiety disorders. But it wasn't until 2000 that it all began to come together. That year, she and her husband visited Israel on sabbatical. Just five days after they arrived, the second intifadeh began. It was a crucible for trauma, and that got Foa focused specifically on combat-related PTSD.

The therapy she developed is known as prolonged exposure, or PE, and involves identifying thoughts and situations that trigger the most fear and then gently exposing sufferers to them. Patients first summon up memories of the trauma. Next comes physical exposure to places or circumstances that call it up more vividly. Facing the memories strips them of power. The approach not only works; it works fast — usually within 12 sessions.

The U.S. military — which isn't easily wowed — is embracing PE. The Department of Veterans Affairs is putting the protocol into wide use and implementing programs to teach it across the various services. "The national rollouts are historic," says psychologist Joan Cook, of Yale University, who is studying PTSD in veterans of the Korean War and World War II. "They are unparalleled in the mental-health field."

To Foa, spreading the word is what matters most now. "If you develop a wonderful protocol, it's useless if nobody uses it," she says. There's little danger of that — as hundreds of thousands of service members may one day be able to attest.