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Biomedical subjects

J Berlant

Publications and source records attributed to J Berlant.

5 recordsLinked to original sources

Schizophrenia and the life cycle.

We reframe the longitudinal treatment of persons with schizophrenia from the perspective of phases in adult development. This approach articulates the need for different interventions of varying intensities over the person's lifetime. The paper discusses the implications of an adult developmental perspective in managing pharmacologic treatment and psychosocial interventions, and in reallocating financial resources for improved long-term outcomes. This perspective is especially useful in the context of a comprehensive community mental health program permitting access to a continuum of services throughout the lifecycle.

Adolescent↗

The case for a services-based approach to payment for mental illness under national health care reform.

In this position paper drafted by the committee on psychopathology of the Group for the Advancement of Psychiatry, the authors discuss merits and disadvantages of three different approaches to equitable coverage of mental illness: coverage for selected psychiatric diagnoses, coverage based on severity of impairment, and coverage of services. They believe that coverage of selected disorders has political appeal but is discriminatory and arbitrary; it is also impractical because clinicians may overdiagnose conditions covered by insurance and underdiagnose excluded conditions. Coverage based on severity of impairment, or disability, has similar limitations. The authors believe services should be the principal basis for coverage, as under general medical insurance. The approach is nondiscriminatory, and costs can be controlled through such means as managed care, changes in the payment system, or benefit design.

Community Mental Health Services↗

Prediction of therapeutic lithium dose: comparison and improvement of current methods.

The predictive value of two methods of predicting therapeutic lithium dose was evaluated in 19 patients. A single time point lithium level determination method, modified by the use of a 900-mg instead of a 600-mg test dose, was found to be a reliable and safe predictor. A mathematical model used for predictions was found to be moderately accurate but to generally predict a lower dose than was actually required.

Adolescent↗