It’s risky business – giving sleep meds to the elderly and the medically ill – and today we have some reassuring data. [Link]Published On: 9/5/2020Duration: 2 minutes, 22 secondsTranscript: It’s risky business – giving sleep meds to the elderly and the medically ill – and today we have some reassuring data.This...

Dr. Kenneth Kendler's latest compares biological siblings where one was adopted and the other raised by the birth parents. The study found that children adopted into a stable adoptive home had a reduced rate of depression by 23%. [Link]Published On: 9/2/2020Duration: 2 minutes, 4 secondsTranscript:Over the past 40 years Dr. Ken Kendler...

Nassir Ghaemi reads excerpts from his work on the therapeutic relationship in bipolar disorder. We talk about how to empathize with manic patients through the technique of “manic siding,” and catalogue over a dozen types of bipolar depression, including one that Dr. Ghaemi calls “existential despair.” [Link]Published On: 8/31/2020Duration: 20...

Is self-knowledge a good thing, or is it just fuel for self-absorption and depressive rumination? We look through four psychotherapies to learn what makes the difference between meaningful insight and navel gazing.Published On: 8/24/2020Duration: 19 minutes, 38 secondsTranscript:Dr. Aiken: Welcome to The Carlat Psychiatry Podcast, keeping psychiatry honest since 2003.

Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) causes a host of psychiatric symptoms, and they don’t always respond to medications the way that other diagnoses do. In this interview, Jonathan Silver shares his top treatment tips on TBI. Dr. Silver is the co-editor of the APA’s the Textbook of Traumatic Brain Injury.Date Published:...

Today’s study looked at psychological factors that predict relapse into depression. They people who were recovered from depression and taking antidepressants along with healthy controls, nearly 200 in total. All the underwent a decision making test that asked them to exert effort─a button pressing task─to get rewards. The antidepressants were then discontinued and...

This study is the largest longitudinal study of cognition in lithium to date. Katherine Burdick and colleagues started with 262 patients with bipolar I – 64% were taking lithium [Link]. They made two key measurements, with the main limitation that neither were controlled. Here's the findings.Published On: 8/12/2020Duration: 2 minutes,...

Silexan, an extract from Lavender with pharmaceutical properties, is one of only two treatments with a large effect size in generalized anxiety disorder. We rank all the treatments by strength and look to see if any of them can work when the SSRIs do not.Published On: 8/10/2020Duration: 26 minutes, 2 secondsTranscript:How...

We always say that single positive studies need replication, and here comes one. In 2012 a randomized trial found that the combination of topiramate and adderall xr worked better than placebo at helping people with frequent cocaine use stay sober. This new study [Link] sought to replicate that, although it...

Dialectical Behavior Therapy ─ DBT ─ has become the gold standard for borderline personality disorder, and other therapies are starting to go head-to-head with DBT in clinical trials. We reviewed one that fared well, Good Psychiatric Management, in our Summer issue and a new one just came out of Australia in a study by...