A recent Spanish study adds to the small literature on the risks of stopping antipsychotic medications following a first episode of psychosis. In this study, discontinuation of antipsychotics after a full functional recovery from a first episode of psychosis (FEP) appeared to be associated with a very high rate of relapse, compared with those who continued to take antipsychotic medications. As the researchers of …
New Staff – Nathaniel Abad
I am very pleased to announce that we have just hired another administrative staff member to help Hershe and Kelli with their work. Nathaniel Abad is joining us. He will be working remotely, primarily on website and information management tasks. Nathaniel Abad graduated from Ateneo de Davao University in 1997 with a Bachelor’s Degree in Biology, a preparatory course for medicine. …
TMS Stimulates Brain Growth
In a recent poster presented at the 2015 Society of Biological Psychiatry meeting Martin Lan and colleagues presented data from the first study of structural changes in the brain following TMS. In the study, 27 patients in an episode of major depression underwent MRIs before and after receiving TMS treatment. Several cortical regions related to cognitive appraisal, the subjective experience of …
UCSF Psycho-education Group for Bipolar
UCSF Group Psycho-Education for Bipolar Disorder The Adult Psychiatry Clinic at UCSF has released the schedules of their Group Psycho-Education for Bipolar Disorder for January 2016. This activity under the Bipolar Disorder Program of the Department of Psychiatry is aimed at providing a community resource for individuals with bipolar disorder, mental health professionals and psychiatrists. Headed by Dr. Descartes Li, …
New Antidepressant Stimulates Neuron Growth
The results of a clinical trial published in December in Molecular Psychiatry suggest that a new medication (NSI-189) which has been shown to increase the production of cells in the hippocampus and the amygdala in pre-clinical studies may help treat major depression. The results highlight the evidence that has been accumulating that stimulating the production of new cells in the hippocampus (neurogenesis) …
Escitalopram Reduces Inflammation in Depression
Escitalopram reduces inflammation in depression and potentially reduces neurotoxicity according to an article just published in the Journal of Psychiatric Research. A pro-inflammatory tendence has previously been noted in patients with depression, and this seems to be associated strongly with increases in kynurenine (see below for more information on how exercise counteracts this tendency). Kynurenine is the first step in …
Mood Charting for Complicated Problems
I want to share a link to a blog post one the Moodsurfing site which talks about the value of mood charting when trying to understand complicated problems. The story is about Lucy, a patient at Gateway (name changed, of course) and our session yesterday. I think that the story neatly illustrates why keeping track of symptoms is so important when …
Lurasidone for Depression with Mixed Features
Lurasidone (Latuda) May Treat Depression with Mixed Features A recently published clinical trial suggests that lurasidone, which is an atypical antipsychotic with strong evidence for efficacy in treating bipolar depression, may be associated with response in patients who, according to DSM5, do not meet criteria for bipolar disorder, but do have evidence of mixed features. The study points to the importance …
SSRI Doses – Higher May Be Better
SSRI Doses – Optimal Doses May Be Higher than Usual Doses One of the questions that often comes up has to do with the patient who has a partial response to a serotonin antidepressant but who remains depressed. Should we increased the dose about the standard initial dose, should wait and see if there’s further improvement? Should we add a …
Bright Light for Non-Seasonal Depression
Bright light may work for non-seasonal depression. This is the conclusion of a study published in the prestigious psychiatric journal JAMA Psychiatry. Researchers at the University of Toronto and the University of British Columbia in Canada conducted a randomized, double-blind, placebo- and sham-controlled, 8-week trial in adults (aged 19-60 years) with major depression of at least moderate severity. 122 patients were …