Takeda and Lundbeck announced that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA)’s Psychopharmacologic Drug Advisory Committee (PDAC) voted to support the efficacy of vortioxetine (Brintellix) for treating cognitive dysfunction in adults with major depressive disorder (MDD). The advisory committee also reviewed evidence to suggest that cognitive dysfunction in people with major depressive disorder was an appropriate target for treatment. Several recent …
Benzodiazepines and Dementia
High use of benzodiazepines is not associated with an increased risk for dementia or Alzheimer’s disease according to a large prospective study published in the British Medical Journal. Previous research had suggested that there might be a link and we all know that single doses of benzodiazepines impair cognition and memory so it made sense that there might be such …
New Scheduling Page
This morning one of my patients pointed out that the scheduling page that we have had on this site under the online office section for the last year was not working properly. We submitted a help ticket to Google which provides us with this under a HIPAA business associates agreement but it got us thinking that we’ve never much cared for …
Depression Screening Recommended
Although it seems like nothing more than common sense, we were very pleased to see that the United States Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF), which is the major organization responsible for guidelines for public health interventions in the United States, added depression screening for adults, in particular for pregnant women and women who recently given birth, to its short list of …
Sheri Johnson Presents on Mania
Every month the clinical team at Gateway Psychiatric gets together to review cases and to hear presentations on topics related to the treatment of patients with mood disorders and this past month we heard from Dr. Sheri Johnson at the University of California, Berkeley who talk to us about the CalMania project and her own work with patients with bipolar. …
Pregnancy and Mental Health
This past week, a colleague at UCSF, Dr. Anna Glezer, wrote to let me know about a new patient-centered informational website she is launching focused on issues related to pregnancy and mental health. It’s called Mind Body Pregnancy, and she started it because in her reproductive psychiatry practice she was finding many patients asking similar questions. She wanted to reach beyond just those she is able to see in clinic and …
Body Mindfulness and Peak Performance
Research from the UCSD Center for Mindfulness suggests that what distinguishes people who are resilient in the face of physical challenges from others may be a natural capacity for the kind of self-awareness that mindfulness teaches, in other words, that body mindfulness and peak performance may be inextricably linked. Psychologist Lori Haase, and her colleagues at UCSD, have conducted a series of …
Congratulations Dr. Kelsey Schraufnagel
We were so excited to learn that Doctor Schraufnagel, who’s been working here at the clinic for two years as a psychological assistant, finally received her California license has a psychologist. The outcome was never in question except for host of bureaucratic snafus including an analyst at the California Board of Psychology who mysteriously disappeared part way through completing her …
Fee Increase 2016
It is time once again for our yearly fee revision. This blog post is intended to provide the details of how we went about determining the revised fees. Warning: This may have far more information than you want or need, and if you have specific questions it is best to talk to your clinician. First, we reviewed information that is …
Antipsychotics
I just wanted to note the addition of a page on atypical antipsychotics which I added to the existing page on antidepressants and hope to compliment with a page on mood stabilizers. This page, and its companions, are all intended to be adjuncts to treatment, a place for patients with an interest in knowing more about medications and medication changes …