Current Psychiatry Online Pearls

Current Psychiatry Online offers psychiatric pearls, brief, focused articles featuring practical advice from psychiatrists about confronting clinical and practical challenges in everyday practice.
Some of the older topics require a subscription, but the most recent ones are accessible:

Consider PTSD subtypes in patient workupAshley Benjamin, MD, MA; Steve Scruggs, PsyD; Susan Shead, MSWRelease date: 9/1/2009

2 quick questions for dementia screeningSanjay Gupta, MDRelease date: 8/1/2009

Insatiable thirst: Managing polydipsiaJulia Perch, MD and; M. Kevin O’Connor, MDRelease date: 7/1/2009

Related Posts on Pearls:
PURL's from Journal of Family Practice
Neurology E-Pearls of the Week
Tips on Prescribing for Walmart
Clinical Cases Online
CT is Us: Radiology Pearls

Searching the Literature Part 4: Summaries

Summaries take the best of the 3 previous layers(studies, syntheses, and synopses) and integrates them so you get multiple aspects of diagnosis and treatment in an easy to use format, rather than one aspect of management.

The best summaries explicitly discuss the editorial process and rating of evidence, where the info came from, list references, and date of most recent updates, and are updated frequently enough to incorporate the newest evidence.

The Library subscribes to one summary resource, also known as a "point of care tool":

UptoDate.

--UptoDate identifies itself as an Evidence Based resource, working through a hierarchy of evidence from high quality randomized trials, to observational studies, to unsystematic clinical observations.

--When high quality systematic reviews are available, they depend heavily on these for recommendations. It is more of an "Expert's Opinion" than a true evidence based resource, and the editorial process is not entirely clear.

--It is updated every every 4 months.

--Uptodate is not without controversy--a kind of "information crack cocaine." It's a relief to go into a database that gives you an answer you can use--it's easy to see why one might forget about other sources of information.

--The Library's subscription is available from any networked hospital pc. If you have an individual subscription, you can access it remotely.

Also, check out the freely available eMedicine and MerckMedicus.

Related Posts:
Searching the Literature Part 1: Studies
Searching the Literature Part 2: Syntheses
Searching the Literature Part 3: Synopses

Featured Library Book: A Practical Guide to Palliative Care

Our newest addition to the book collection is A Practical Guide to Palliative Care by Jerry L. Old and Daniel L. Swagerty(2007). For a review, check out this article in JAMA.

Designed for easy use at the bedside, this book contains:
--Multiple bullet points
--Evidence-based approach to end of life care
--Tested practical information that is used in the field
--Easy-to-read tables covering such topics as pain medications, how to treat non-pain symptoms, determining who qualifies for hospice care and more
--Includes an "In a Nutshell" review in each chapter

If you wish to check this book out, you'll find it in the WB section of the book shelves, WB 310 P895 2007.

Other Featured Books: Cecil Textbook of Medicine.
Medical Management of Vulnerable and Underserved Patients

Other Palliative Care Info: End of Life Care Fast Facts.