Adults living with intellectual and developmental disabilities are often prescribed psychotropic medication on an "as needed" basis (PRN) in response to behavioural challenges. In the present study we conducted a retrospective analysis of medication administration records in the 6-months preceding and following discharge of 11 adults…

Literature pertaining to open disclosure predominantly refers to acute care settings; this is the case in, for example, the UK, Republic of Ireland, Australia, Korea and the USA. There is, however, a dearth of literature regarding open disclosure related to people with intellectual disabilities. A practice example of open disclosure is presented…

People with disabilities are more likely to be hospitalized and use health care services than people without disabilities. They also report negative experiences interacting with health care providers during these encounters, placing them at risk for preventable adverse medical events, poor quality of life, and dependence on others. Fortunately,…

Limited literacy has a large impact on the U.S. population; about half of adults lack sufficient literacy proficiency. However, not all populations are impacted equally, as there is a significant comorbidity between low literacy and mental illness. The authors have found that smartphones can offer mental health patients with low literacy numerous…

In this chapter, I present an interactional and multimodal analysis of video-recorded mental health consultations with asylum seekers in France. My main focus is on sequences in which the patients talk with the therapist about their learning of French, in some cases through the mediation of a professional interpreter. The particular context of…

I describe an approach to art therapy treatment for survivors of traumatic brain injury developed at a rehabilitation facility for adults that serves inpatient, outpatient, and long-term residential clients. This approach is based on a review of the literature on traumatic brain injury, comprehensive neurorehabilitation, brain plasticity, and art…

Imagine having developed a continuing medical education (CME) initiative to educate physicians on updated guidelines regarding high cholesterol in adults. This initiative consisted of didactic presentations and case-based discussions offered in 5 major US cities, followed by a Web-based enduring component to distill key points of the live…

The original Inventory of Depression and Anxiety Symptoms (IDAS) contains 11 nonoverlapping scales assessing specific depression and anxiety symptoms. In creating the expanded version of the IDAS (the IDAS-II), our goal was to create new scales assessing other important aspects of the anxiety disorders as well as key symptoms of bipolar disorder.…

Medications administered in clinical practice obtain their therapeutic effect only to the extent that the drug is present in the appropriate concentration at the desired site. To achieve this goal, the prescribing clinician must be aware of how a drug may interact with the physiology of the patient. Pharmacokinetics is the study of this process…

This article describes the identification of a 10-item set of the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV Personality Disorders (SCID-II) items, which proved to be effective as a self-report assessment instrument in screening personality disorders. The item selection was based on the retrospective analyses of 495 SCID-II interviews. The…

Two case reports are described in which patients presented for the treatment of multiple comorbid anxiety disorders, all of which appeared to derive from prolonged separation anxiety disorder. In particular, these adults had effectively altered their lifestyles to avoid separation, thereby displaying only ambiguous separation anxiety symptoms that…

This article is part of a series exploring Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). In this seventh installment, the author discusses three holistic treatments for children and adults with ADHD: diet and nutrition, sleep, and exercise. These approaches focus and improve the overall health of ADHD patients. (For Part 6 of this series, see…

Repeated studies of graduating dental students indicate limited preparation to provide services for individuals with special healthcare needs. By the end of the 1990s and into the present decade, more than half of the U.S. dental schools provided less than five hours of class room presentations and about three quarters of the schools provided 0-5…

Chronic noncancer pain (CNCP) is common in the general population as well as in people who have a substance use disorder (SUD) (Exhibit 1-1). Chronic pain is not harmless; it has physiological, social, and psychological dimensions that can seriously harm health, functioning, and well-being. As a multidimensional condition with both objective and…

An eclectic form of psychodynamic psychotherapy is presented to address the emotional problems of exceptionally and profoundly gifted adolescents and adults. The approach includes cognitive/behavioral techniques as well as psychologically informed mentoring, coaching, and advising. Once a psychodynamic formulation was established, it was used to…