Taral R Sharma

South Carolina Department of Mental Health | scdmh · Patrick B Harris Psychiatric Hospital

A growing number of patients present in clinics with complaints of insomnia. Over the past century, great advances have been made in our knowledge of mechanisms of sleep and wakefulness. Understanding sleep neurochemistry has led to better management of different types of insomnias with a variety of non-pharmacological and pharmacological treatment...

A retrospective analysis was followed on 20 case reports covering the possible correlation between the atypical antipsychotic, quetiapine, and neuroleptic malignant syndrome (NMS), determined by the study of 7 different NMS criteria guidelines. A great majority (19) of the case studies did not meet the requirements of all 7 guidelines, frequently d...

Objective: Primary care physicians are increasingly providing psychiatric care in the United States. Unfortunately, there is limited learning opportunity or exposure to psychiatry during their residency training. This survey was conducted to assess primary care resident interaction with mental health professionals and their satisfaction, knowledge,...

Horticulture therapy employs plants and gardening activities in therapeutic and rehabilitation activities and could be utilized to improve the quality of life of the worldwide aging population, possibly reducing costs for long-term, assisted living and dementia unit residents. Preliminary studies have reported the benefits of horticultural therapy...

T he most commonly abused substances in southwest Virginia are prescription medications. One of the most significant trends in Virginia is the percent of the population aged 12 and older using pain relievers for nonmedical purposes. Although the rate for the state as a whole (4.42%) is less than the national rate (4.89%), the southwest Virginia reg...

Emergency Medical Technician (E.M.T.) certification, a recent trend in United States (U.S.) medical schools, provides a valuable introduction to future clinical practice. Based on a recent literature review, few papers describe integration of E.M.T. exposure in undergraduate medical education. However, Harrison et al proposed the introduction of me...

To the Editor: Clinicians prescribe antimuscarinic compounds to treat the extrapyramidal side effects of neuroleptic medications. However, scopolamine has not been used for the management of such side effects. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first case of using scopolamine transdermal patch for management of extrapyramidal side effects of...

Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) is the most common form of endocrine disorder in premenopausal women. (Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) is also a common endocrine disorder affecting about 6% of women of reproductive age, characterized by gynecologic and endocrine symptoms, including chronic anovulation, infertility, and hyperandrogenism. The clini...

The patient appeared to be having delusions and admitted to previous alcohol dependence but denied any history of major psychiatric illness.

To the Editor: Priapism is an abnormal, prolonged, persistent, painful erection of the penis that persists beyond or is unrelated to sexual stimulation. 1 The incidence rate in men 40 years of age and older was 2.9 per 100,000 person-years. 2 Drug-induced priapism has been observed with a variety of medications, most commonly the antihypertensive d...

Celiac disease (CD) is a unique autoimmune disorder that occurs in genetically susceptible individuals after the ingestion of gluten, a protein found in wheat and some other cereals. The immunologically based inflammation induces atrophy of the villous structure of the jejunum, leading to malabsorption of variable severity. Subclinical and nonspeci...

Marijuana is the most commonly used illegal substance by adolescents in the United States. According to a 2009 survey conducted by Monitoring the Future, there were about 11.8% of 8th graders, 26.7% of 10th graders and 32.8% of 12th graders who had abused marijuana at least once in the year (Johnston L.D., Bachman J.G., O'Malley P.M., Schulenberg J...

Thanks to the use of modern body armor and continual improvements in field medi-cine, U.S. military personnel serving in the Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF) and Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF) combat theaters are surviving severe traumatic injuries that, in previous conflicts, might have proved fatal. 1 Many of these trau-matic injuries require ampu...