Google’s Hangouts Meet is finally giving way to the more advanced version, Google Meet. For several years we have been using Google Meet as the preferred way of setting up telepsychiatry sessions at Gateway Psychiatric. There are two essential points to know. The information about how to join a Google Meet is to be found in the invitation to the …
Gateway Bipolar 101 Group – July 2021
Next week will commence another round of our 6 week Bipolar 101 group for Gateway clients/patients hoping to learn more about how to manage the impact of their moods with more grace and awareness. Bipolar 101 is an online, six session group that covers topics such as general knowledge of the disorder, medications, substance use, early detection of episodes, healthy …
Brexpiprazole (Rexulti) in Bipolar Disorder
Brexpiprazole (Rexulti) is a medication that has similar effects to two other atypical antipsychotics, cariprazine (Vraylar) and aripiprazole (Abilify) but brexpiprazole does not have approval in the United States for treating bipolar mania. Why is this, and how should it guide clinical practice? A recent review of all of the studies of brexpiprazole in bipolar mania that are listed on …
Primary Care – Getting Good Care for Less
Over the years we have written a lot about the importance of integrating mental health care and medical care and the experience of the past year demonstrates to all of us the importance of having excellent primary care as well as mental health care. For that reason, we are excited to pass on an offer that comes once a year …
Mental Health Awareness 2021
For now over 70 years, Americans have delegated the month of May as “Mental Health Awareness Month” (since 1949). And with medical experts and researchers across the planet sharing their observation that the Covid-19 pandemic is going to continue to have an array of mental health impacts into the foreseeable future, mental health awareness needs to remain in the forefront …
Fasting Mimicking Diet
What is the Fasting Mimicking Diet? We have just begun trying out the ProLon Fasting Mimicking Diet, developed by an expert at the University of Southern California. It’s a new concept in dieting relying on the science behind intermittent fasting, which is a method of dieting by fasting for some hours or days each month. The Fasting Mimicking Diet, however …
Jet Lag Calculator by Sleep Junkie
Jet lag, although temporary affects both physical and mental performance. Travelling across multiple time zones disrupts your body’s circadian rhythm and a result it may cause fatigue, dizziness and other symptoms including changes in mood. We found this app that could help you recover from jet lag on a wonderful site called Sleepjunkie.org. You can use the calculator to change …
Psychotherapy for Bipolar
People with bipolar disorder are much less likely to receive psychotherapy (26-50% of patients in one study got therapy) as opposed to psychiatric medications (46-90% were treated with medications) according to a study sponsored by the Depressive and Bipolar Support Association. This is not surprising since many mental health professionals were taught when we were in training that bipolar depression …
Functional Connectivity Predicts Response to CBT or Antidepressant
In this study of previously untreated adults with major depression, outcomes after 12 weeks of treatment with randomly assigned medication or CBT were associated with the degree of resting-state functional connectivity between brain regions involved in mood regulation—specifically, the SCC and 1) the left frontal operculum (incorporating the BA47 in the ventrolateral prefrontal cortex [VLPFC] and anterior insula); 2) the …
Vital Signs and Blood Pressure Home Monitoring
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 …