How can integrative medicine best be utilized to tend to patient mental health?

In study, monkeys found to be depressed and given sertraline saw reduced volume in the brain's anterior cingulate cortex.

Explore the differences of narcissism, sociopathy, and psychopathy to navigate relationships and protect emotional well-being effectively.

Do you get anxious when thinking about being physical? Or do your muscles get tensed? These can be signs of Paraphobia. Here’s what it is & how to cope with it.

A new study now shows in human brain cells that autism, a neurodevelopmental condition, can now be traced back to prenatal development, even though the disorder is not diagnosed until at least 18 months of age. The atypical development starts at the very earliest stages of brain organization, at the level of individual brain cells, according to scientists.

OBJECTIVE To describe a clock drawing task (CLOX) designed to elicit executive impairment and discriminate it from non-executive constructional failure. SUBJECTS 90 elderly subjects were studied (45 elderly and well persons from the independent living apartments of a continuing care retirement community and 45 patients with probable Alzheimer’s disease). The clock drawing performance of elderly patients was compared with that of 62 young adult controls. METHODS Subjects received the CLOX, an executive test (EXIT25), and the mini mental state examination (MMSE). The CLOX is divided into an unprompted task that is sensitive to executive control (CLOX1) and a copied version that is not (CLOX2). Between rater reliability (27 subjects) was high for both subtests. RESULTS In elderly subjects, CLOX subscores correlated strongly with cognitive severity (CLOX1: r =−0.83 v the EXIT25; CLOX2: r =0.85 v the MMSE). EXIT25 and MMSE scores predicted CLOX1 scores independently of age or education ( F (4,82)=50.7, p<0.001; R 2 =0.71). The EXIT25 accounted for 68% of CLOX1 variance. Only the MMSE significantly contributed to CLOX2 scores ( F (4,72)= 57.2, p<0.001; R 2 =0.74). CLOX subscales discriminated between patients with Alzheimer’s disease and elderly controls (83.1% of cases correctly classified; Wilkes’ lambda=0.48, p<0.001), and between Alzheimer’s disease subgroups with and without constructional impairment (91.9% of cases correctly classified; Wilkes’ lambda=0.31, p<0.001). CONCLUSIONS The CLOX is an internally consistent measure that is easy to administer and displays good inter-rater reliability. It is strongly associated with cognitive test scores. The pattern of CLOX failures may discriminate clinical dementia subgroups.

This 10 point guide to mental state exam (MSE) enhaces your psychiatric evaluation skills. An accurate MSE assists in the diagnosis of mental illness.

My moment of truth professionally came in 2014 at the American Psychiatric Association annual conference. I had picked up on the increased interest in Nutritional Psychiatry, but I was still concerned with what my colleagues might think. To my surprise, my concern was unfounded. Emily Deans, MD and I led a workshop, Brain Food: From…

Alcohol use disorder (AUD) has been associated with impairments in social and emotional cognition that play a crucial role in the development and maintenance of addiction. Repeated alcohol intoxications trigger inflammatory processes and sensitise the immune system. In addition, emerging data point to perturbations in the gut microbiome as a key regulator of the inflammatory cascade in AUD. Inflammation and social cognition are potent modulators of one another. At the same time, accumulating evidence implicates the gut microbiome in shaping emotional and social cognition, suggesting the possibility of a common underlying loop of crucial importance for addiction. Here we propose an integrative microbiome neuro-immuno-affective framework of how emotional dysregulation and alcohol-related microbiome dysbiosis could accelerate the cycle of addiction. We outline the overlapping effects of chronic alcohol use, inflammation and microbiome alterations on the fronto-limbic circuitry as a convergence hub for emotional dysregulation. We discuss the interdependent relationship of social cognition, immunity and the microbiome in relation to alcohol misuse- from binge drinking to addiction. In addition, we emphasise adolescence as a sensitive period for the confluence of alcohol harmful effects and emotional dysregulation in the developing gut–brain axis.

Rosalie Greenberg, MD, FAPA, DFAACAP, is Board Certified in General and Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. In this article, she provides a general overview of the vector-borne illness, Bartonella.

Die Behandlung narzisstischer Menschen erfordert ungewöhnliche Methoden. Der Psychater Claas-Hinrich Lammers hat nun eine Therapie entwickelt, die narzisstisch gestörten Patienten helfen soll.

La schizophrénie se caractérise par des perturbations de plusieurs fonctions mentales, notamment la réflexion, la perception, l’expérience de soi, la cognition, la volition, l’affect et le comporte…

This Psych Meds 101 post covers the different classes of antidepressants, including how they work and what the side effects are.

Using Jung's Archetypes to Create compelling Fictional Characters in Writing

Their genetic makeup may increase your risk for these disorders, a new study says.

When people think ECT ("electroshock"), they often think One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. Yet ECT in real life is very different—I've had it.