Cerebrotendinous xanthomatosis (CTX), a rare familial lipid metabolic disease inherited via an autosomal recessive trait, is caused by mutations of the sterol 27-hydroxylase gene. Psychiatric disorders may occur in patients with CTX. In Taiwan, Chang et al presented patients with CTX. However, there has not been a case presented about CTX with psychiatric disorders in Taiwan. We present three s...

BACKGROUND Paraquat poisoning is a lethal method of suicide used around the world. Although restricting its accessibility had been widely discussed, the underlying psychopathological mechanism of paraquat self-poisoning and its association with mortality have not yet been explicitly evaluated. METHODS We included all patients admitted to a tertiary general hospital in Taiwan between 2000 and ...

Antidepressants can increase the spontaneous risk of hypomania or mania when used for treatment in affective disorders. When prescribed as an antidepressant, bupropion is generally considered to have a lower relative risk of inducing mood shifts. We describe the case of a 67-year-old man known for dysthymic disorder in remission on quetiapine and venlafaxine who experienced a first lifetime epi...

Depressed pregnant women were classified as dysthymic or major depression disorder based on the Structured Clinical Interview for Depression and followed to the newborn period. The newborns of dysthymic versus major depression disorder mothers had a significantly shorter gestational age, a lower birthweight, shorter birth length and less optimal obstetric complications scores. The neonates of d...

The fourth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (American Psychiatric Association, 1994) groups disorders into diagnostic classes on the basis of the subjective criterion of "shared phenomenological features." There are now sufficient data to eliminate this rational system and replace it with an empirically based structure that reflects the actual similarities am...

BACKGROUND Offspring of parents with bipolar disorder, by virtue of their high-risk status for developing bipolar disorder, merit an investigation of the efficacy of treatment with mood stabilizers. Behavioral and mood difficulties in this population may represent prodromal forms of bipolar disorder. We studied the efficacy of divalproex in treating child and adolescent bipolar offspring with m...

BACKGROUND Over the past decade, studies of the effectiveness of pharmacological treatment for depression have often been based on research designs intended to measure efficacy, and for this reason the results are of limited generalizability. Research is needed comparing the clinical and economic outcomes of antidepressants in day-to-day clinical practice. METHODS A six-month randomised prosp...

BACKGROUND Craving for alcohol is associated with abnormal activation in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex. Deep transcranial magnetic stimulation (dTMS) has shown promise in the treatment of depression. There are few treatment options for treatment-resistant dysthymic disorder comorbid with alcohol use disorder. OBJECTIVE To investigate the possible anticraving efficacy of bilateral dorsola...

Depression is a highly prevalent disorder of affect characterized by persistent sadness or anhedonia (an inability to experience pleasure), typically accompanied by additional symptoms such as negative cognitions (selfperceptions of failure, feelings of guilt, and/or suicidal thoughts), somatic dysfunction (fatigue, loss of appetite, fatigue, disturbances in sleep), and impairment in daily func...