Shrink rap : three psychiatrists explain their work / Dinah Miller, Annette Hanson, and Steven Roy Daviss.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Melissa and Oscar: getting help : What are the different types of mental health professionals? ; What is a psychiatrist? ; What is a forensic psychiatrist? ; When a patient should see a psychiatrist rather than a primary care doctor ; What is split treatment? ; When a patient should see a psychiatrist for psychotherapy ; When is split treatment better than care with only a psychiatrist? -- Josh: a walk through the system : The psychiatric evaluation and the mental status exam ; The importance of outside informants ; What is a chemical imbalance? ; How psychiatric diagnoses are determined ; Involuntary commitment to a psychiatric unit ; What are a patient's rights during hospitalization -- The Branch family: why people seek care : For psychiatric disorders ; When life gets hard and stress causes symptoms ; For psychiatric symptoms caused by medical illnesses ; For maladaptive personality styles ; For addictive or compulsive behaviors ; For suicidal thoughts or behaviors ; For insight and education -- Tara: let's talk : What is psychotherapy? ; What are some different types of psychotherapy? ; How psychiatrists learn to become psychotherapists ; How are research studies conducted on psychotherapy as treatment? ; What people talk about in psychotherapy ; What the psychiatrist does in psychotherapy ; Privacy and confidentiality in the therapeutic relationship: on keeping secrets and minding HIPAA ; Special exceptions: child custody subpoenas and the Patriot Act ; Self-disclosure by the therapist ; How long should treatment last? -- Josh revisited: "Ask your doctor to prescribe" : How psychiatric medications are (sort of) classified ; How a doctor chooses a medication ; Informed consent ; Complementary and alternative treatments ; How doctors dose medication ; What happens when conventional treatments don't work? ; Why psychiatrists don't like Xanax ; Addictive medications in the treatment of the psychiatric patient -- Becca: when things go wrong : Difficulties with communication and poor patient-doctor fit ; Recovered memory therapy ; Disorders induced by the psychiatrist ; When psychotherapy is inappropriately used as the only treatment ; Side effects and adverse reactions from medications ; Black box warnings ; Antidepressants and suicide in young people and how the FDA decides on black box warnings ; Boundary violations ; Therapists who exploit patients --

Eddie: a child at risk : Health care proxies, advance directives, and medical decision making for the dying patient ; Informed consent and medical decisions for minors ; Juvenile delinquency and the legal system ; Custody evaluations: who gets the child? -- Eddie: the prison patient : Specialty mental health courts and compelled treatment ; Interrogation and why criminals confess ; Psychopaths versus sociopaths and whether they can be treated ; The insanity defense ; What becomes of the insanity acquittee? ; Psychiatric care in jail and in prison ; Civil commitment of sex offenders -- Mitchell: hospital-based psychiatry : What happens in the emergency department? ; Finding a hospital bed for a psychiatric patient: insurance approval and bed availability ; What happens during a psychiatric hospitalization? ; Patient education, family involvement, and therapy ; The agitated patient: restraint, seclusion , and forced medication ; Shock treatments, or electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) ; Bargaining for beds: insurance (again) and how psychiatric beds get allocated ; Electronic health records ; Day hospitals, or partial hospitalization programs ; The consultation-liaison psychiatrist -- Sharon: the business of psychiatry : Psychiatrists and insurance networks: how it all works ; The missed appointment: no-shows and late cancellations ; Preventing lawsuits ; Providing safe environments for violent patients ; When the patient assaults the psychiatrist ; Changes in the patient's ability to pay for care ; Influences of the pharmaceutical industry ; Happy birthday!: gifts from patients -- Things we argue about : Health care reform and how we allocate our treatments ; What constitutes a psychiatric disorder: diagnostic criteria in the DSM age ; Psychiatric disabilities and deciding who deserves special accommodation ; Psychiatric disabilities in the workplace, from pilots to presidents ; Medications with addictive potential ; Medical marijuana for psychiatric disorders ; Complementary and alternative treatments ; The recovery model -- The future of psychiatry : More than just medicines and psychotherapy: VNS, DBS, and rTMS ; Just beginning: genetics, brain structure and function, and neuroplasticity ; Psychopharmacogenetics: scientific gains that will lead to treatments based on each patient's biology.