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 …
Stopping Antipsychotics after a First Episode of Psychosis
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 …