Updates about psychiatry and our practice.
I have long been a strong proponent of generic medications. Recently, however, several of my patients have expressed concerns about the generic medications that they have received. This led me to do some research on generic pharmaceutical companies. The first thing to know about generics is that they are made by many different manufacturers in many different countries. This is …
Take lithium near your bedtime and take it with a little food to reduce GI discomfort. If you are particularly sensitive to medications you can start by taking either ½ of the 300 mg tablet or capsule or you can ask for your doctor to write for a couple of 150 mg tablets for the first day or two. If …
Since getting in to see a doctor these days can be very difficult, now seems like a good time to get a home monitoring kit. For around 200$ you can purchase a set of devices that will measure your blood pressure, heart rate, weight, temperature and blood oxygenation. Quite a miracle of technology, if you think about it. Blood Pressure …
There are many reasons why thyroid status is important in a clinic treating people with mood disorders. For one thing, hypothyroidism and hyperthyroidism can mimic some of the symptoms of mood disorders. For another, lithium, a medication we often prescribe, is associated with hypothyroidism in a significant minority of patients taking the medicine. One of the questions we wrestle with …
What happens in the body when antidepressants work. An international group of researchers, led by Professor Gustavo Turecki of McGill University and the Douglas Mental Health University Institute, examined changes in the activity of genes (measured using mRNA) in the blood in over 400 patients who were being treated with antidepressants. They identified one gene that was significantly more active …
For the past two weeks we have been collecting stories from our patients. Some of them are doing well in the face of the turbulence caused by coronavirus and some of them are struggling. We decided to collect stories from those who are doing well in order to identify ways of coping with this stress and perhaps have some suggestions …
Here I’m going to show you that you can make an appointment with me, Dr. Forster, in a minute using the online office tools. This example applies only to appointments made in April 2020. During April, because of coronavirus, all of our appointments will be telehealth and you can make a telehealth appointment in any available time slot. First go …
We are happy to report that at least one of the services that we use for genetic testing, as part of our comprehensive evaluation for patients who had trouble finding an appropriate medication, is modifying the procedure for their tests so that we can order the test online and the test kit will be shipped directly to your home. Genomind …
Several people recently requested medications to have on hand in case an emergency disrupts the supply. Here are some guidelines for these requests. This is from a useful post written by a doctor after a local emergency… “Ask your doctor for an additional prescription, explain what you’re doing and tell your doctor the meds will be going into storage,” says …
Inflammation and C Reactive Protein Inflammation is often seen in people with depression. And there is evidence to suggest that it predicts treatment response. The most widely accepted standard test to measure inflammation is the C-reactive protein, or CRP. This is a protein that is produced by the liver in inflammatory states. The American Heart Association and the Centers for …
