Neuroscientific and clinical studies of music over the past two decades have substantially increased our understanding of its use as a means of therapy. The authors briefly review current literature related to music's effect on people with different mental illnesses, and examine several neurobiological theories that may explain its effectiveness or lack thereof in treating psychiatric disorders. Neuroscientific studies have shown music to be an agent capable of influencing complex neurobiological processes in the brain and suggest that it can potentially play an important role in treatment. Clinical studies provide some evidence that music therapy can be used as an alternative therapy in treating depression, autism, schizophrenia, and dementia, as well as problems of agitation, anxiety, sleeplessness, and substance misuse, though whether it can actually replace other modes of treatment remains undetermined. Future research should include translational studies involving both neuroscience and clinical medicine that investigate the long-term effects of music intervention and that lead to the development of new strategies for music therapy.

R ecent evidence suggests that psychiatric patients may be at increased risk for cardiovascular events. Large community studies report that people with mental illnesses have a 2-to 5-fold greater risk of coronary heart disease and a 2-to 3-fold greater risk of cardiac mortality than the general population. [1][2][3] This increased risk might be explained by risk factors commonly noted in these patients, including smoking, obesity, and unhealthy lifestyles. 4-6 Clinical Perspective on p 243The association of risk for acute myocardial infarction (AMI) with antipsychotic treatment remains unclear because earlier analyses have methodological issues (eg, residual confounding and limited statistical power and external validity). 3,[7][8][9][10][11] If the link exists, more attention might be paid to monitoring drug safety, especially because of current increased use of antipsychotics and the widening range of disorders for which they are being indicated. 12This study tapped a large nationwide population-based data set to investigate the association between antipsychotic treatment and risk of AMI in patients with mental disorders. A casecrossover design was used to eliminate known or unknown within-subject time-invariant confounders while examining the acute effects of various antipsychotics on subsequent AMI Background-Antipsychotic medications have been increasingly and more widely prescribed despite continued uncertainty about their association with the incidence of acute myocardial infarction (AMI

Acupressure may be an effective means of improving sleep quality of psychogeriatric inpatients.

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Valproate-related peripheral oedema is usually regarded as a problem occurring after long-term administration of valproate. The scarcity of reports is partially responsible for the lack of a full understanding of this condition. This report describes two patients acquiring peripheral oedema after short-term use of add-on therapy with valproate. The oedema could appear and reappear quickly. Discontinuing valproate resulted in rapid improvement of this condition, and the cause-effect relationship was supported by double challenge. We also put forward a preliminary hypothesis to explain this treatable situation.

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