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

Donna Barnes, PhD,, director of the Suicide Prevention Program at Howard University, outlines the sharp rise in suicides in the black community. She looks cultural and sociological shifts as the black community blends with the larger communities, the role of the clergy, changing family supports, how they intervene and educate the community about mental health, etc. She is also the director of the...

Elsa Ronningstam PhD discusses the nature, etiology and characteristics of the narcissistic personality. Included is a discussion of it's high prevalence in our society.

Connie Siskowski RN PhD, is the director of the American Association of Caregiving Youth. This is a generally unseen epidemic of younger children who are caring for sick or disabled family. The organization speaks to the problem, how the responsibilities impact young children and teenagers, and the types of interventions needed.

Lisa Scott PhD, from Florida State University, outlines the nature, treatment, emotional burdens, and some of the new developing theories about stuttering. Included are notions that it may even have a neurological or genetic component.

Joan Almon, Executive Director for the Alliance for Childhood, offers frank observations and concerns that healthy playtime for children is vanishing from our schools and society. Her comments reflect the report Crisis in The Kindergarten -- Why Children Need to Play in School.

Kenneth Pargament PhD describes how most mental health work underestimates the power of religion in many people's lives. He talks of the importance of exploring this dimension with a patient.

Robert Weitz, PhD, is 96 years old. He worked as a clinical psychologist for 62 years. This is a spirited, instructive and thoughtful overview of his experiences and observations about mental health treatment from 1945 until is retirement just a few years ago. He talks of analysis, cognitive therapy, hypnotism, etc., and of the needed professional cooperation among all who treat mental illness.

David Randle, EdD, from St Petersburg Florida, explains the notion of collective grief on the community and those individuals who are suffering from the multiple losses following the oil leak. He further explains the attack and loss of collective identities, and the critical need to keep community and family systems intact.

Dan Blazer MD, from Duke University, speaks to items which can cause or worsen late life depression. These include the commonly considered biological issues, but he speaks too of social, psychological and spiritual-religious domains. There is an interesting discussion of wisdom.

Valerie Taylor MD, psychiatrist from McMaster University in Canada, speaks to the associations between depression and cardiovascular disease in women. Included are discussions of the metabolic syndrome, that adipose tissue becomes an endrocrine organ, the role of inflammation, gender bias, being overweight, etc., and how they can increase mortality and increase the risks of depression and cardiova...

Susan Foster, MSW, reports findings on the 2010 report, Behind Bars II, Substance Abuse and America's Prison Population from CASA at Columbia University (NY). She talks of the positive effect of treatment, the disparities between gender and racial-ethical needs and characteristics, and even about Fetal Alcohol Syndrome. www.casacolumbia.org

Steven Adelsheim MD, professor of psychiatry at the University of New Mexico, talks of the program of outreach, detection, intervention and treatment for children showing early signs of psychosis. This is further outlined in the EARLY program at www.earlyprogram.,org

Sylvia Karasu MD, from Weill Cornell Medical College, co-author of The Gravity of Weight, discusses one chapter devoted to the science and concepts of maintaining weight loss, exercise, and the mental health benefits of exercise.

Leonard Berry, PhD, director of the Florida Center for Environmental Studies, speaks of the known and unknown effects of oil spills, with specific concerns on the food change, shore plants, dispersant safety, how hurricanes may shift the oil, etc.

Gina Solomon MD speaks to the known health effects of exposure to crude oil, such as following the continuing April 20, 2010 leak in the Gulf of Mexico.. She discusses her concerns and worries about the legacy of the exposure on human and wildlife, shifting winds, hurricanes, etc. Included is an overview of the nature of crude oil. Dr. Solomon is a scientist with the Natural Resources Defense Coun...

Ernest Moy, MD, medical officer for the US Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, explains the recently published data on the trends and disparities in mental health care in the United States.

Lois Choi-Kain MD, medical director at the Gunderson Residence, discusses the nature, challenges, and outcome of treatment of the borderline personality disorder.

John Gunderson, MD, professor of Psychiatry and Harvard University, offers an update and recent insights into the origin, nature, and treatment o patients with a borderline personality disorder.

Lieut. Karen Ho, with the US Public Health Service, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) and the Center for Quality Improvement and Patient Safety, speaks about the data just published by AHRQ on the trends, quality, and disparities in the delivery of health care regarding obesity.

Flavie Waters MD, from the University of Western Australia, explains the nature and some of the theories and forms of audio hallucinations. Included are discussions of how hallucinations can occur in non-psychiatric conditions, ideas about methods to accept them if they cannot be controlled, and some interesting associations and differences between hallucinations and others.

Aldo Morales MD, psychiatrist and addictionologist, explains the history, use and nature of buprenorphine in the treatment of opioid addictions.

Robert Moran MD specializes in addiction medicine and psychiatry. He discusses the unique characteristics and challenges of late teenage drug and alcohol abuse. Included are topics about the maturation of the brain, exposure with drugs to developing brains, the time needed for optimum intervention and treatment, the difference between addiction abuse, the role of family in treatment, etc.

Priti Kothari, MD, a child psychiatrist, talks of the specific characteristics and challenges to and for the proper diagnosis and treatment of AHDH children. She also explains how guanfacine, a recently approved medication for childhood AHDH, should be used, as well as how older medications are chosen and used.

Peter McGuffin MD is a professor of psychiatric genetics at the Institute of Psychiatry (London). He speaks about the insights and tools which are developing that will better match a medication to a person, based on the person's genetic make-up.

Bruce Hyman PhD specializes in the cognitive and behavioral treatment of obsessive-compulsive disorders. His OCD workbook has found wide use. He speaks to intensive out-patient modalities to break and modify OCD behavioral patterns.