Lithium is indicated for a number of things. Most clearly, as a mood stabilizer in bipolar spectrum disorders. It is unique among mood stabilizers in that it is very robustly anti-manic. The medication treats and prevents manic episodes from...

This week the Psychiatry and Psychotherapy Podcast is joined by Dr. Walter A. Brown, Clinical Professor Emeritus in the Department of Psychiatry and Human Behavior at Brown University, author of the brand new book “Lithium: A Doctor, a Drug, and a...

How Neuralink, Elon Musk, Brain-Machine Interfaces, and Deep Brain Stimulators May Change Psychiatry Forever.

Working with a good therapist often requires fewer sessions than other therapists to see improvement; in contrast, working with a therapist you don’t connect with, or with inadequate training, may require an extended number of sessions (Okiishi et...

On this week’s episode of the podcast, I interview Jaeger Ackerman, 4th year medical student about suicide risk factors and treatments. As a therapist, attempt to closely approximate their reality of feeling suicidal with words. When I first hear...

In this episode of the podcast, I interview Steven, one of my patients who had a rare form of a stroke—in the right orbital frontal cortex. He participated in a psychiatric program that I run. He tells his story of how his function and emotions...

What is Psychodermatology? At the most basic level, Psychodermatology encompasses the interaction between mind and skin. It is the marriage between the two disciplines of psychiatry and dermatology, uniting both an internal focus on the non-visible...

What is an eating disorder? One of the most important things about anorexia and bulimia is understanding that they are caused by a complex interplay of genetics, epigenetics, early development, and current stressors. They can lead to dangerous...

Grief is the multifaceted response—emotional, behavioral, social—to a loss or major life adjustment (like a divorce, loss of a job, etc.). Bereavement is the process of grieving specific to the loss of affection or bond to a person or animal...

What is clozapine? Not only is clozapine the gold standard medication for treatment-resistant schizophrenia, it is also one of the most unique drugs used in psychiatry. It was synthesized 1958, only eight years after chlorpromazine, the first...