The Experts Speak - An Educational Service of the Florida Psychiatric Society

Joan Magill, PsyD, examines the differences between depression and sadness, the need to reach out to people who may appear troubled during the holiday season, of our social needs, how these conditions may present in children or the elderly, and other aspects of what are commonly called the Holiday Blues.

Susan Brison, PhD, an associate professor of philosophy at Dartmouth College, was raped and left to die. She wrote a powerful and insightful book about her experience and how after the violence she rebuilt herself. She discusses those experiences in this interview.

Glenn Caddy, PhD, is a clinical psychologist who works and lives in both the United States and Australia. These are his observations in how these two counties differ in their approach to access to mental health care.

Vivian Burt MD, professor emeritus of psychiatry and founder/director of the Women's Life Center at the Geffen School of Medicine (UCLA), describes the science of menopause, the role of estrogen, the clinical presentations, psychiatric risk factors, role of body weight, etc, and treatments for menopause

Thomas Kostan, MD, from Baylor Medical College Department of Psychiatry, is involved with the development of a cocaine vaccine. He discusses the history, the science and the realities of a vaccine to the effects of cocaine.

Richard Weisler MD, from both the Duke University and University of North Carolina School's of Medicine, explains and outlines the enlarging epidemic of unintentional drug poisoning deaths. This has been called a pharmaco-epidemic. The numbers and trends are daunting, and it is a public health emergency.

Norman Fine, whose son died by suicide, and psychologist GarrieThompson PhD, reveal the emotions and the honest, rational approaches involved after the death of a loved one by suicide.

Jeff Szymanski PhD, executive director of the International OCD Foundation, and on staff at McLean Hospital and Harvard Medical School, speaks of how OCD presents in children, the PANDAS concern, of conditions that look like OCD but are not, how to approach treatment,, and the range and concept of the OCD spectrum disorders.

Susan Strauss RN, MHS, VP of Hospice and Palliative Care of Cape Cod, explains the hospice benefit and philosophy. She speaks of the need to deal with both the patient and family, of special needs for children when they experience a death, when children are put into hospice, ethical issues, the changing demographics, and the creation of a treatment team to balance the medical, psychological and sp...

Darryl Appleton MD, psychiatrist and sleep specialist, explains the changes in the sleep cycle across the ages. He also speaks of sleep hygiene and the role melatonin, phase shifts, the definition and nature of insomnia, treatment, etc.

David Brendel MD, associate director of the Pavilion at McLean Hospital, discusses the many practice, therapeutic and ethical issues of the use of social networking. This is a new world to explore. What does it mean when the doctor or patient "Google" each other? What if the found information is wrong? He discusses how this public information might impact the therapy, either for the better or wors...

Amado Suarez MD, a psychiatrist on the clinical staff of the staff of the University of South Florida, defines a treatment resistant depression, the nature of remission and response, when to change treatments, and even the impact of diagnostic errors or cultural aspects of some response patterns.

Eric Pfeiffer, MD, a psychiatrist with a life-time of work in aging processes, speaks to the need to prepare for retirement and how to make one's aging process better. He speaks of the need for physical, social and mental activity, as well to understand and work around the reality of getting older. Retirement is now a longer phase of life.

Karl Lanoche MD, from Portsmouth NH, discusses the many exciting new and growing aspects of TMS, it's history, it's use in depression, and what new uses are being explored with conditions such as OCD, pain, tinnitis, and even adolescent depressions. There is considerable interest in how TMS is helping to locate which parts of the brain are involved with different conditions.

Louis Schlesinger PhD from the John Jay College of Criminal Justice discusses the nature and probable origins of the serial sexual killer. He gives an overview of the topic, and speaks of the early warning signs, the role of sexual fantasy and tension, of how often they are misdiagnosed as being psychotic, the impact of other co-morbid psychiatric influences, and of his recent study of the rituals...

Terrie Cowly from the TMJ Association and Chris Veasley from the National Vulvodynia Association discuss the impetus behind the End Chronic Pain in Women project. They discuss many issues, including the gender bias facing women, the need for knowledge about one’s condition, the role of support groups and of not feeling alone, the need for public awareness, better professional educations, and the n...

Marius Romme MD PhD, from Belgium, and founder of the International Community for Hearing Voices, explains that all voice hearing people may not have psychiatric disorders. He gives the history of these observations, of how trauma may play a role, what clinical history is needed, of intervention techniques, and of how many people learn to cope with, or recover from the voices

Matthew Thomas MD, a psychiatrist at the Florida State University, details the new biological information about the form and origin of major depression, including discussions of the role of inflammation, childhood stress, the role of glia, BDNF, glutamate, etc.

James Woods MD explains the notion, history, science and treatment of fibromyalgia. He then further explains the unique relationship of fibromylagia with psychiatry.

Three experts discuss the rising suicide rate and other mental health issues in the African-American community. Included are mentions of micro-insults, the role of religious groups, attitudes towards reaching out for help, etc. Panel members: William Lawson MD from Howard University, Sherry Molock PhD from George Washington University, and Donna Barnes PhD from National Organization of People of C...

Katherine Phillips, MD, and director of the body dysmorphic center (BDD) at the Rhode Island Hospital, explains the nature, manifestations, prevalence, early signs of, and treatment issues for the BDD. BDD is more common than realized and is found in both sexes and across a wide age range.

Haim Knobler, MD, former head of the Israeli Defense Force department of mental health, outlines their approach and program to prevention and interventions of PTSD. He speaks how this done with the medical corps as well.

Joan Almon, executive director of the Alliance for Childhood, discusses the important of play to many developmental domains, including concern with the shift in our psychosocial experiences with the growing disappearance of community, non-computer based play in teenagers. She also speaks of 'stranger danger', the violence in so many games, the creative aspect of play, recommendations for screen ti...

George Nurnberg MD, professor of psychiatry at the University of New Mexico, explains the range and causes of medication associated sexual side effects. He also speaks about testosterone, as well nitrous oxides’ role (which is the mechanism through which the Viagra like drugs work) in sexual dysfunction. Also discussed is the connection to relationships, weight gain, pre-medication use sexual prob...

Judy Schoenberg, from the Girl Scouts of USA Research Institute, outlines a campaign to promote empower girls and women to resist the often dysfunctional impact of how the media portrays and depicts women and girls. This is in conjunction with proposed US House Bill 4925.