Psychosomatics
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To establish the role of psychiatrists and mental disorder in assisted dying practices in countries and states where such practices are legal. ⋯ No country has a blanket policy of mandatory psychiatric review but the specialty contributes in circumstances of exclusive mental disorder or when there is doubt regarding capacity and sound judgement. The absence of a mandatory role for psychiatrists means that reversible psychopathology may be missed. As a result, the patient's decision to end his/her life may be more informed by treatable mental disorder than by his/her lifelong preferences.
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Despite modern antiretroviral treatment, HIV-associated distal neuropathic pain (DNP) remains one of the most prevalent and debilitating complications of HIV disease. Neuropathic pain is often accompanied by depressed mood, and both pain and depression have been associated with decreased health-related quality of life (HRQOL) well-being. The relative contribution of depression and pain to worse life quality has not been addressed, however, even though a better understanding might sharpen intervention strategies. ⋯ These results suggest that interventions to improve HRQOL well-being in individuals with HIV-associated DNP may need to address not only pain intensity but mood state as well.
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Randomized Controlled Trial
Relationships among pain, depressed mood, and global status in fibromyalgia patients: post hoc analyses of a randomized, placebo-controlled trial of milnacipran.
Patients with fibromyalgia often experience depressive symptoms in addition to chronic pain and other characteristic symptoms associated with this disorder. ⋯ Symptom improvements with milnacipran were only weakly associated with baseline depressive symptoms and were largely independent of improvements in depressive symptomatology.
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This paper discusses the published interim report of the DSM-V Workgroup onSomatic Symptom Disorders (SSDs). "SSD" is the term proposed by the Workgroup to replace "somatoform disorder."