The American journal of psychiatry
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The author provides an overview of the current status of privacy in psychiatric treatment, with particular attention to the effects of new federal regulations authorized by the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA). ⋯ The new regulatory environment is less friendly to medical privacy but still leaves a great deal of discretion in physicians' hands. A commitment to protecting privacy as an ethical norm can be advanced by psychiatrists' requesting patients' consent even when it is not required, by ensuring that patients are aware of the limits on confidentiality, and by avoiding unnecessary breaches of privacy in the course of providing psychiatric care.
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The authors examined whether patients with comorbid borderline personality disorder and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) have a more severe clinical profile than patients with either disorder without the other. ⋯ The additional diagnosis of PTSD or borderline personality disorder does little to augment the pathology or dysfunction of patients who have either disorder without the other.