What the Psychiatrist Needs to Know About Ventricular Assist Devices: A Comprehensive Review.

BACKGROUND: The number of patients with end-stage heart failure using mechanical circulatory support has dramatically increased over the past decade. Left ventricular assist devices, the most common type of mechanical circulatory support, can be used as a bridge to transplant, destination therapy, and as a bridge to recovery. As this patient population continues to grow, consultation-liaison psychiatrists will become increasingly involved in their care. A thorough biopsychosocial assessment is required to ensure adequate recognition and management of medical, psychiatric, social, and ethical challenges posed by this population. METHODS: We performed a literature review to identify key issues relevant to the practice of consultation-liaison psychiatrists. RESULTS: General functioning of left ventricular assist devices, device types, system components, life with a left ventricular assist device, preoperative evaluation, treatment of psychiatric comorbidities, and end-of-life decision-making are discussed. CONCLUSIONS: Consultation-liaison psychiatrists need to be familiar with the high prevalence of psychopathology in patients implanted with left ventricular assist devices. A detailed biopsychosocial formulation is required to adequately identify and, if possible, resolve a myriad of medical, psychiatric, social, and ethical challenges presented by this population. Future efforts should accurately identify and report specific psychiatric disorders and adverse events within this cohort.

Acute movement disorders in the medical setting.

Objective Psychosomatic medicine psychiatrists are often tasked with the evaluation and treatment of complex neuropsychiatric states which may be motoric in phenotype. Little energy has been dedicated to understanding acute movement disorders in the hospital environment. Method Recognizing the importance of frontal-subcortical (corticostriatothalamocortical) circuitry and basal ganglia structures, we present a case series of acute movement disorder phenotypes resulting from underlying medical conditions, commonly-administered medications, or the interaction of both. We organize these scenarios into neurodegenerative disorders, primary psychiatric disorders, neuroinflammation, and polypharmacy, demonstrating a clinical example of each followed by background references on a variety of clinical states and medications contributing to acute movement disorders. In addition, we offer visual illustration of implicated neurocircuitry as well as proposed neurotransmitter imbalances involving glutamate, gamma aminobutyric acid, and dopamine. Furthermore, we review the various clinical syndromes and medications involved in the development of acute movement disorders. Results Acute movement disorder's involve complex interactions between frontal-subcortical circuits and acute events. Given the complexity of interactions, psychopharmacological considerations become critical, as some treatments may alleviate acute movement disorders while others will exacerbate them. Conclusion Integrating underlying medical conditions and acutely administered (or discontinued) pharmacological agents offers an interactional, neuromedical approach to acute movement disorders that is critical to the work of psychosomatic medicine.

Depressogenic effects of medications: a review.

The literature is filled with reports that link medications with the onset or progression of depression. Because depression is so common in patients with medical illness, assessing whether a medication has in fact caused depression, or whether the relationship is coincidental, can be challenging. In this article, we review the literature on the association between medications and depression. For most agents, there are case reports or small studies linking the medication with the onset of depression, but more rigorous prospective studies are either lacking or found no association between the agent and depression. However, several medications, (eg, barbiturates, vigabatrin, topiramate, flunarizine, corticosteroids, mefloquine, efavirenz, and interferon-alpha) do appear to cause depression in some patients and should be used with caution in patients at risk for depression.

Mesiotemporal Disconnection and Hypoactivity in Klüver-Bucy Syndrome: Case Series and Literature Review.

OBJECTIVE: Klüver-Bucy syndrome (KBS) is often perceived as rare and limited to cases with bilateral amygdala destruction. In fact, various alternate mechanisms may be involved, warranting exploration of the syndrome's presentation, pathophysiology, prognosis, and management. DATA SOURCES: Clinical management and the electronic medical records were examined for 2 patients diagnosed with partial KBS (ICD-10 F07.0) after experiencing ≥ 3 of the following: placidity, indiscriminate dietary behavior, hyperorality, hypersexuality, visual agnosia, and hypermetamorphosis. A literature search was performed in April 2015 by using the keyword Kluver-Bucy in PubMed and Ovid databases for English language publications since inception. Additionally, the authors reviewed the reference list of these publications in order to identify additional reports. STUDY SELECTION: Studies were included if they had information about presentation, pathophysiology, syndrome treatment or management, and course of KBS. DATA EXTRACTION: Information about our KBS cases was obtained by reviewing electronic medical records and by direct observation of the patients. A total of 186 (PubMed) and 137 (Ovid) publications were identified in each database. We ultimately reviewed 109 articles containing information about KBS, finding 51 publications addressing relevant aspects of this syndrome. RESULTS: The first case demonstrates KBS secondary to mesiotemporal structural atrophy, and the second illustrates transient KBS due to functional, postictal, hypoactivity within such structures. Literature review and discussion regarding both prognosis and treatment of KBS follows. CONCLUSIONS: Klüver-Bucy syndrome may be underreported due to a limited understanding of the syndrome as one necessitating bilateral amygdaloid destruction. The syndrome can be seen with damage/hypofunction of the hippocampal-amygdaloid complex and its projections. The prognosis of KBS is variable, and its treatment is based on a combination of environmental and pharmacologic measures.

Risk factors for positive depression screens in hospitalized cardiac patients.

BACKGROUND: Depression is common in patients with cardiac illness and is independently associated with elevated morbidity and mortality. There are screening guidelines for depression in cardiac patients, but the feasibility and cost-effectiveness of screening all cardiac patients is controversial. This process may be improved if a subset of cardiac patients at high risk for depression could be identified using information readily available to clinicians and screened. OBJECTIVE: To identify risk factors for a positive depression screen at the time of admission in hospitalized cardiac patients. METHODS: A total of 561 consecutively screened cardiac inpatients underwent the Patient Health Questionnaire-2 (PHQ-2). A prospective chart review was performed to assess potential risk factors for depression that would be readily available to front-line clinicians. Rates of risk factors were compared between patients with positive and negative PHQ-2 depression screens, and multivariate logistic regression was performed to assess whether specific risk factors were independently associated with positive screens. RESULTS: Of the 561 patients screened, 13.5% (n=76) had a positive depression screen (PHQ-2≥2). In the univariate analyses, several variables were associated with a positive depression screen. On multivariate analysis, an elevated white blood cell (WBC) count (>10×10(9) cells per liter) and prescription of an antidepressant on admission were independently associated with a positive depression screen, while current smoking showed a trend toward significance. CONCLUSION: Information on these three identified risk factors (WBC count, antidepressant use, and smoking) is readily available to clinicians, and patients with these diagnoses may represent a cohort who would benefit from targeted depression screening in certain settings.

Effects of depression and anxiety improvement on adherence to medication and health behaviors in recently hospitalized cardiac patients.

Impaired adherence to medications and health behaviors may mediate the connection between psychiatric symptoms and mortality in cardiac patients. This study assessed the association between improvements in depression/anxiety and self-reported adherence to health behaviors in depressed cardiac patients in the 6 months after cardiac hospitalization. Data were analyzed from depressed patients on inpatient cardiac units who were hospitalized for acute coronary syndrome, heart failure, or arrhythmia and enrolled in a randomized trial of collaborative care depression management (n = 134 in primary analysis). Measurements of depression (Patient Health Questionnaire-9), anxiety (Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale, Anxiety subscale), and adherence to secondary prevention behaviors (Medical Outcomes Study-Specific Adherence Scale items) were obtained at baseline, 6 weeks 12 weeks, and 6 months. The association between improvement in depression/anxiety and adherence was assessed by linear regression after accounting for the effects of multiple relevant covariates. At all time points improvement in the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 was significantly and independently associated with self-reported adherence to medications and secondary prevention behaviors. In contrast, improvement in the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale, Anxiety subscale was associated with improved adherence only at 6 weeks. In conclusion, in a cohort of depressed cardiac patients, improvement in depression was consistently and independently associated with superior self-reported adherence to medications and secondary prevention behaviors across a 6-month span, whereas improvement in anxiety was not.