Assessing posttraumatic stress disorder with the MMPI-2 in a sample of workplace accident victims.

In this study, the predictive capacity of the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-2 Posttraumatic Stress Disorder-Keane (MMPI-2 PK) scale was examined in a sample of trauma victims who experienced a serious workplace-related accident and subsequent injury. In keeping with a number of previous investigations, the PK scale was largely ineffective in identifying posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) beyond overall symptom and functional severity. In contrast, sets of clinical and content scales proved to be significant predictors of PTSD. These findings suggest that the PK scale is not particularly useful in detecting PTSD in civilian trauma samples. Clinicians might be best advised to use the MMPI-2 clinical and content scales in their assessment of PTSD in civilian patients presenting with a history of trauma.

An integration of feminist and self-psychological approaches to bulimia nervosa.

Theoretical frameworks have guided approaches to treatment for the eating disorders. While unitary models were characteristic of earlier eras, more recent formulations have attempted to improve understanding by integrating various schools of thought (1). Several of these have placed cultural factors in the context of individual and familial predispositions. A weakness of these models has been the relative lack of understanding of the means by which these cultural values create mechanisms for expression of these disorders in specific women. In this manuscript I will explore the theoretical framework which places eating disorders in the context of socialization and culture, and integrate this with our current understanding of the individual psychopathological factors that enhance a woman's susceptibility to eating disorders. This exploration of specific mechanisms has implications for the development of efficacious models of treatment.

Charismatic leadership, boundary issues, and collusion.

The authors suggest that a charismatic leadership style has an impact on the maintenance of boundaries and standards of practice within a department of psychiatry. They also underline the need for all members of a self-regulated professional group to assume responsibility for the maintenance of standards within the group. An overview of leadership tasks and styles, with particular emphasis on the qualities of charismatic leadership, is provided, and the impacts of boundary violations committed by members of a psychiatric department or institute on the integrity of the professional group are also elaborated. The authors then develop several hypotheses regarding the phenomenon of emotional collusion that occurs in departments in which a charismatic leader becomes sexually involved with patients. The individual internal psychological mechanisms and companion group dynamics that may allow the leader to be supported at the cost of ethical standards, principles of practice, and the ultimate creativity and viability of the group are then discussed. The authors conclude that the maintenance of standards within a self-regulating professional group must be the shared responsibility of all members. The example of boundary violations by a charismatic leader is used to illustrate the need for open debate regarding fundamental principles required to maintain a healthy functioning of critical checks and balances within the psychiatric profession.

Psychiatry in the new millennium.

The field of psychiatry is experiencing great excitement at this time, much as it was 100 years ago. Current excitement is rooted in the greatly strengthened therapeutics, new models for understanding, and an exponential increase in knowledge of brain function as well as in the opportunity to revise health care delivery. While public expectations of professionals have generally fallen, the role of the healer, which is at the heart of psychiatric practice, has remained high in public regard. Psychiatry has also had to develop new relationships with an active consumer movement. Consumers now appropriately expect to be part of the planning, governance, and evaluation of care. Patients are questioning the research agenda and demand a role in determining the conduct of investigations. This active consumer movement is playing an important role in destigmatizing mental illnesses. Newer, nonmoralistic theories about mental illness and the profession's emphasis on the public trust have also played an important role. The increasing closeness of psychiatry to the rest of medicine has had a greatly beneficial impact, not only on stigma but also on diagnosis and treatment. Care must be taken, however, to see that diagnosis does not become a means to avoiding understanding of people. A welcome recent change has been the reunion between psychiatry and the addictions. This reunion has been facilitated by the development of multifactorial models of care in the mental health field and harm-reduction strategies in the addictions. This bodes well for more integrated treatment in the coming years. The strong psychiatric treatments that are now available and those on the horizon also auger well for an exciting period in our field. The excitement is enhanced by recognizing the multiple approaches to care that have been demonstrated to be effective and the need for great investment in research in this country and by developing new partnerships between the profession and public.

Factors that may influence future approaches to the eating disorders.

The past thirty years have seen dramatic changes in our approach to the eating disorders. These include marked improvements in the recognition and understanding of the disorders, and the reduction of the morbidity and mortality of anorexia and bulimia nervosa. Bulimia nervosa itself, now the focus of so much attention, was described less than twenty years ago. While these gains, including those in the level of knowledge and appreciation by the public, have been transmitted to the benefit of patients, there remain significant difficulties in treating people with eating disorders. Critical research may address gaps in knowledge and lead to more efficacious treatments. At the same time, however, changes in the health care system are occurring rapidly and these will have an effect on both research and treatment. The purpose of the present article is to highlight scientific and systemic factors that the authors feel will play an important role in how people with eating disorders are responded to in the coming years. In addressing the eating disorders we are confining our remarks to anorexia and bulimia nervosa, and not to obesity; the latter would require consideration of many other issues, beyond the scope of this review.