Data regarding the increased incidence of psychiatric illness during midlife in women are still conflicting. However, there is a growing consensus that certain groups of women may in fact be at higher risk for mood symptoms and psychiatric disorders during the perimenopausal transition. Mood symptoms during the perimenopause may be related to mood disorders during other periods of hormonal fluctuation throughout a woman's reproductive lifecycle. Elucidating these associations may advance the understanding of mood disorders during the perimenopausal transition. The epidemiology and treatment of perimenopausal mood symptoms compared with the epidemiology and treatment of mood disorders during the late luteal phase of the menstrual cycle, pregnancy, and postpartum. Common risk factors associated with mood disorders during these periods of hormonal changes or instability include poor lifestyle habits, a history of hormonally related mood disorders, stress and negative life events, ethnicity, and comorbidity. Reproductive-related mood disorders also are subject to an improvement in symptoms in response to treatment with selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors. As the morbidity associated with mood disorders during midlife may be quite significant, and as life expectancy continues to increase, recognition, prevention, and treatment of perimenopausal affective illness is becoming increasingly essential.

Parkinson's disease is predominantly a dopamine deficiency syndrome, which is produced in the brain by the loss of cells located in a small area in the ventral midbrain called the substantia nigra. Complete unilateral dopamine lesions, based on the administration of toxic substances (ie, 6-hydroxy-dopamine in rats and 1-methyl-4-phenyl-1,2,3,6-tetrahydropyridine in mice and primates) have been extremely useful in testing strategies of replacement. For example, the functional and biochemical impact of the transplanted ventral mesencephalic dopaminergic progenitors has been characterized to a large extent, using the complete lesion model in rats. Over the last decade, however, studies addressing the ability of neurotrophic factors to protect injured dopamine cells prompted researchers to make available partial and progressive lesion models to allow a window of opportunity to interfere the disease progression. Recent findings relating a-synuclein with Parkinson's disease pathology have opened new possibilities to develop alternative models based on the overexpression of this protein using recombinant adeno-associated viral vectors, which is valuable not only for helping to better understand its involvement in the disease process, but also to more closely resemble the neurodegeneration found in Parkinson's disease.

The monoamine theory has implicated abnormalities in serotonin and norepinephrine in the pathophysiology of major depression and bipolar illness and contributed greatly to our understanding of mood disorders and their treatment. Nevertheless, some limitations of this model still exist that require researchers and clinicians to seek further explanation and develop novel interventions that reach beyond the confines of the monoaminergic systems. Recent studies have provided strong evidence that glutamate and other amino acid neurotransmitters are involved in the pathophysiology and treatment of mood disorders. Studies employing in vivo magnetic resonance spectroscopy have revealed altered cortical glutamate levels in depressed subjects. Consistent with a model of excessive glutamate-induced excitation in mood disorders, several antiglutamatergic agents, such as riluzole and lamotrigine, have demonstrated potential antidepressant efficacy. Glial cell abnormalities commonly associated with mood disorders may at least partly account for the impairment in glutamate action since glial cells play a primary role in synaptic glutamate removal. A hypothetical model of altered glutamatergic function in mood disorders is proposed in conjunction with potential antidepressant mechanisms of antiglutamatergic agents. Further studies elucidating the role of the glutamatergic system in the pathophysiology of mood and anxiety disorders and studies exploring the efficacy and mechanism of action of antiglutamatergic agents in these disorders, are likely to provide new targets for the development of novel antidepressant agents.

Seasonal affective disorder is a common variant of recurrent major depressive disorder or bipolar disorder. Treatment with bright artificial light has been found to be effective in this condition. However, for patients who do not respond to light therapy or those who lack compliance, conventional drug treatment with antidepressants also has been proposed. Substances with selective serotonergic or noradrenergic mechanisms should be preferred over older antidepressants. Although there are a number of open and controlled studies evaluating different compounds, these studies were often limited by relatively small sample sizes. Furthermore, there are no studies specifically addressing bipolar seasonal depression. This article will review the published literature on pharmacotherapy of seasonal affective disorder.

Objective: The authors conducted a review and meta-analysis of the literature comparing telepsychiatry with “in-person” psychiatric assessments.

Method: Approximately 380 studies on telepsychiatry published between 1956 and 2002 were identified using MEDLINE, PsycINFO, and cross-referenced bibliographies. Of these, 14 studies with an N>10 compared telepsychiatry with in-person psychiatry (I-P) using objective assessment instruments or satisfaction instruments. Three of these studies compared high bandwidth (HB) with low bandwidth (LB) telepsychiatry.

Results: Fourteen studies of 500 patients met inclusion criteria and were included in the meta-analysis. Telepsychiatry was found to be similar to I-P for the studies using objective assessments. Effect sizes were on average quite small, suggesting no difference between telepsychiatry and I-P. Bandwidth was found to be a significant moderator. Three moderators were tested, effect sizes remained largely heterogeneous, and further analyses are needed to determine the direction of effect. There was no difference between I-P and telepsychiatry between the HB and LB groups, although there are anecdotal data suggesting that H B was slightly superior for assessments requiring detailed observation of subjects.

Conclusion: Out of a large telepsychiatry literature published over the past 40+ years, only a handful of studies have attempted to compare telepsychiatry with I-P directly using standardized assessment instruments that permit meaningful comparisons. However, in those studies, the current meta-analysis concludes there is no difference in accuracy or satisfaction between the two modalities. Over the next few years, we expect telepsychiatry to replace I-P in certain research and clinical situations.

Perimenopause, the interval of irregular menstrual activity which directly precedes menopause, is characterized by widely fluctuating hormone levels amidst a large-scale decline in circulating estrogen. This phase in a woman's life is typically accompanied by physical discomforts including vasomotor symptoms, such as headaches, insomnia, and hot flushes, as well as genital atrophy. Not surprisingly, studies suggest a significant increase in mood lability for women during this time. While some evidence points toward an exacerbation of bipolar mood symptoms and an increase in schizophrenic psychosis during perimenopause, the majority of research conducted on perimenopausal mental disorders has focused on unipolar depression. Studies vary widely in methodology, definitions of menopausal status, and degrees of depression among subjects; however, the majority of findings indicate an increased susceptibility to depression during the perimenopausal transition. This greater susceptibility may be due to neuroendocrine effects of declining estrogen levels, the subjective experience of somatic symptoms resulting from this hormonal decline, and/or the more frequent occurrence of “exit” or “loss” events for women during this stage of life. At this time, more research is needed to address questions of prevalence, risk, and etiology for depression and other major mental disorders as related to the physiological and psychosocial changes associated with perimenopause.

Epidemiologically, disasters represent multiple forms of possible exposures, including exposure type (eg, natural versus human-made), intensity, and duration. It has been suggested that the consequences of human-made disasters (eg, terrorist incidents) may be more severe than those of natural disasters; recent evidence suggests that there may be a high prevalence of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) among both direct survivors of such attacks and in the general population. Several studies after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks found that the prevalence of PTSD was higher in New York City than it was in the rest of the US and that there was a substantial burden of PTSD among persons who were not directly affected by the attacks. This raises important questions about the meaning of “exposure” to a disaster. Using data from an assessment of PTSD in the first 6 months after September 11th we considered the nature of the PTSD experienced by persons who were not directly affected by the September 11th attacks. These data suggest that persons in the general population may have clinically important posttraumatic stress symptomatology after a mass terrorist incident. Future research should consider mechanisms through which persons in the general population may be at risk for PTSD after such incidents.

Anxiety, stress, and trauma-related disorders are a major public health concern in the United States. Drugs that target the γ-aminobutyric acid or serotonergic system, such as benzodiazepines and selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, respectively, are the most widely prescribed treatments for these disorders. However, the role of glutamate in anxiety disorders is becoming more recognized with the belief that drugs that modulate glutamatergic function through either ionotropic or metabotropic glutamate receptors have the potential to improve the current treatment of these severe and disabling illnesses. Animal models of fear and anxiety have provided a method to study the role of glutamate in anxiety. This research has demonstrated that drugs that alter glutamate transmission have potential anxiolytic action for many different paradigms including fear-potentiated startle, punished responding, and the elevated plus maze. Human clinical drug trials have demonstrated the efficacy of glutamatergic drugs for the treatment of obsessive-compulsive disorder, posttraumatic stress disorder, generalized anxiety disorder, and social phobia. Recent data from magnetic resonance imaging studies provide an additional link between the glutamate system and anxiety. Collectively, the data suggest that future studies on the mechanism of and clinical efficacy of glutamatergic agents in anxiety disorders are appropriately warranted.