Group for the Advancement of Psychiatry – serie

Psychiatrists are in a unique position to understand the personalities, needs, and motivations of cult leaders and followers. This report assumes that unique vantage point in its review of the cult phenomenon. What are the psychiatric attributes of cult leaders and followers? Why do individuals join cults? Can cults play a constructive role in an individual's life? And how can psychiatrists help family and friends deal with cult members? Supported by numerous references, this report presents statistics and colorful descriptions of American cults and their effect on those who embrace them.

In Psychotherapy Is Worth It: A Comprehensive Review of Its Cost-Effectiveness, edited by Susan G. Lazar, M.D., and co-authored with members of the Committee on Psychotherapy of the Group for the Advancement of Psychiatry, surveys the medical, psychiatric and psychological literature from 1984 to 2007 that is relevant to the cost-effectiveness of all kinds of psychotherapy. The volume explores the cost of providing psychotherapy in relation to its impact both on health and on the costs to society of psychiatric illness and related conditions.

Written for psychotherapists, psychiatric benefit providers, policy makers, and others interested in the cost-effectiveness of providing psychotherapeutic treatments, this book analyzes the burden of mental illness, particularly in the United States, and the enormous associated costs to society that constitute a chronic, insufficiently recognized crisis in the health of our nation. The authors point out that in the United States nearly 30% of the population over the age of 18 has a diagnosable psychiatric disorder and yet only about 33% of those treated receive minimally adequate care. In fact, most people with mental disorders in the United States remain untreated or poorly treated, leading to loss in productivity, higher rates of absenteeism, increased costs, morbidity and mortality from medical illnesses, and loss of life through suicide.

This book provides a systematic and comprehensive review of 25 years of medical literature on the cost-effectiveness of psychotherapy and discusses the: • Epidemiology of mental illness, including prevalence and treatment rates• Misconceptions and stigmas associated with psychiatric illness and the provision of psychotherapy and how they affect those most in need of care • Cost-effectiveness of psychotherapy for the major psychiatric disorders as well as savings that psychotherapy can yield in increased health, work productivity, lives saved, and medical and hospital related costs

For instance, in a review of 18 studies conducted from 1984 to 1994, psychotherapy was found to be cost-effective in treating patients with severe disorders, including schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and borderline personality disorder, and led to improved work functioning and decreased hospitalization. Likewise, studies point to the enhancement of outcomes when psychotherapy is used in conjunction with medical therapies in the treatment of cancer, heart disease, and other prevalent, chronic diseases. Psychotherapy Is Worth It: A Comprehensive Review of Its Cost-Effectiveness concludes that studies confirm psychotherapy works for many conditions, is cost-effective, and is not over-used by those persons not truly in need. A treatment that is cost-effective is not "cheap"; rather, it can provide effective medical help at a cost acceptable to society, in comparison both to other effective treatments for the same condition and to medical treatments for other classes of mental disorder.

Written by a committee of the Group for the Advancement of Psychiatry, People With Mental Illness in the Criminal Justice System: Answering a Cry for Help represents the collective wisdom of leaders in community psychiatry and is the third in a series of successful publications that have used Dear Abby letters as source material. The letters, submitted by readers with experience with mental illness and the criminal justice system, constitute a rich, real-world repository for the case stories presented in this fascinating volume. Using the experiences shared in the letters, the authors employ the Sequential Intercept Model to present a series of chapters offering detailed recommendations for psychiatrists, group practices, and criminal justice entities on partnering with individuals who are at risk and their families, with the goal of improving outcomes.

The book's many features and functions make it relevant to a diverse audience: • The Dear Abby letters on which the book's stories are based are heartfelt and human, providing a depth of emotion and understanding that cannot be found elsewhere, and the down-to-earth writing style and real-world material are designed to be useful and compelling to both practitioner and layperson.• The case-based recommendations for effective interventions are very specific and practical to promote and enhance clinical skill development. • A robust set of appendices presents information for professionals on a variety of critically important topics, including principles for criminal justice and community psychiatry; sequential intercept mapping; stages of engagement with the criminal justice system; HIPAA regulations; screening and mental status/criminal justice history; essential systems of care; and the risk-need-responsivity model.• An extensive section of criminal justice/mental health online resources addresses areas such as law enforcement, courts, corrections, evidence-based practices, veterans, organizations, and miscellaneous topics, providing avenues of information and assistance for individuals, families, and clinicians.

This simple, evidence-based guide challenges psychiatrists to initiate changes in their clinical work; in the operation of their agencies, programs, and teams; and in their partnerships with local criminal justice and behavioral health providers to positively impact people with behavioral health conditions in the criminal justice system. Implementing the approaches described so eloquently in People With Mental Illness in the Criminal Justice System: Answering a Cry for Help can potentially reduce the overrepresentation of people with mental illnesses in justice settings, provide alternatives to incarceration, and divert individuals who do not pose a public safety risk from jail.

Drawing on real-life cases as well as research data, Family Murder: Pathologies of Love and Hate distills the current psychiatric knowledge of different forms of murder within the family. Although crimes of this sort have made headlines for decades -- and although violence and homicide within the family are public health issues -- little guidance exists in the research literature for mental health professionals who treat these families or for the child protection workers and lawyers who interact with them.This book offers a unique framework for examining the various types of family murder -- delving into the commonalities, the differences, and society's misconceptions and providing readers with a comprehensive guide to begin to understand these tragedies.Ten forensic psychiatrists, who among them have interviewed hundreds of perpetrators and thousands of individuals affected by family violence, examine crimes such as intimate partner homicide, feticide, child murder by parents, siblicide, and intimate partner homicide in elderly populations as they discuss - Epidemiology and public health implications- Various motivations for each subtype of family murder- Psychiatric assessment issues (e.g., risk assessments, sanity evaluations)- Means of prevention- Aftermath of these homicides, including sentencing of and working with the perpetrator.No other single source gathers this amount of detailed research and psychiatric experience about every type of murder in the family. With a case-based learning approach supplemented by expert analysis, Family Murder: Pathologies of Love and Hate is an indispensable resource for mental health.

More than 10 years after the first edition was published—and spurred in part by the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, which turned nearly all mental health professionals into de facto disaster mental health professionals—this second edition of Disaster Psychiatry remains a clinically oriented, evidence-based, and practical guide to mental health evaluation and interventions against the backdrop of adversity. Over the course of 21 extensively referenced chapters, a cadre of experienced mental health professionals takes a biopsychosocial approach to explaining what a disaster is, how it relates to mental health, and how psychiatrists and other mental health professionals can effectively intervene to reduce suffering. Among the topics they discuss are • The practice of psychiatry in the context of climate change • The role of technology, including social media, mobile apps, and artificial intelligence, in the disaster cycle• Self-care for disaster responders and health care workers• Psychiatric evaluations of children, adolescents, and adults, as well as of special populations that include LGBTQ+ individuals, people with disabilities, and other marginalized groups• Psychopharmacology in acute and post-acute disaster settings• Psychiatric interventions for infants, children and adolescents and geriatric patients Throughout, the book synthesizes the latest information gathered from a variety of sources, including the peer-reviewed scientific literature; the clinical wisdom imparted by frontline psychiatrists, psychologists, and social workers; and the experiences of those who have organized disaster mental health services. Although the impact of a disaster is often measured in terms of casualties, fatalities, and economics, the psychological and emotional effects of wildfires, floods, mass shootings, wars, pandemics, racial and ethnic strife, and more are no less real. With the wealth of information in Disaster Psychiatry, mental health professionals will be prepared to help their patients navigate the modern world's unexpected challenges