Curated Video
What is Mixed Mania and How Do We Treat It?
What is Mixed Mania and How Do We Treat It? The official term for mixed mania is bipolar disorder either 1 or 2 with mixed features. With bipolar 1 disorder, you have episodes of depression and episodes of mania. With bipolar 2, you have...
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What is Cyclothymia? – How is it different from bipolar disorder?
What is cyclothymia and how is it different from Bipolar disorder? In this video I compare the symptoms of bipolar disorder versus cyclothymic disorder, discuss when it starts and whether or not it turns into bipolar disorder. In short,...
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Unipolar Mania | Can you Be Manic and Never Depressed?
Bipolar disorder is a disorder where you have reoccurring episodes of depression or mania. Because these mood states are opposite in nature and say they have opposite polarity. It’s like a magnetic pole that has opposite ends of...
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The Truth About Testosterone And Depression
Testosterone deficiency is a common cause of depression in men and can often go unrecognized. As a psychiatrist, what I see is the either the depressed man who doesn’t get enough improvement with antidepressants or the man who is not...
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The Psychedelic Revolution – Don’t Forget About Ketamine
Ketamine is an old medication used for anesthesia, but in recent years it's been used to treat depression. It works changing your brain circuitry, and it has been found for many people to be more effective than traditional...
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Subclinical Psychosis – Can You Be A Little Psychotic?
Subclinical psychosis is a term some researchers have used to describe psychotic symptoms in people who don’t have a primary psychotic illness or as a way to identify people who are prone to later get a psychotic illness. It’s not really...
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Why Mind Wandering Is Bad For You and How to Stop It
Random, unintentional thinking like you do when your mind wanders happens in a different part of the brain than intentional thoughts. And too much mind wandering is bad for you in that it makes you more anxious and unhappy. In this...
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Why Do Antidepressants Take So Long To Work?
Antidepressants can take anywhere from 2 -6 weeks to see a therapeutic effect. You may notice a little improvement sooner than that, but the usual is weeks. There's a couple reasons for this. The first is due to the way the drug works....
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Why Antidepressants Make You Feel Worse - At First
This problem of antidepressants making you feel worse can happen when we use it for anxiety or depression. With depression, you can feel even more depressed after you take it, but if you keep taking it, that effect wears off. The problem...
Curated Video
When Tricyclic Antidepressants May Be Your Better Option
Depression can be a debilitating condition, but for some people, tricyclic antidepressants may be a better option. In this video, I talk about the pros and cons of tricyclic antidepressants and how they may be a better choice for some...
Curated Video
What? A Cough Medicine for Depression?
Serotonin antidepressants, step aside there’s a new kid in town. The FDA has just approved a new antidepressant that contains the active ingredient found in over-the-counter cough medicines. This new drug, which will be available soon,...
Curated Video
What You Don't Know About Trans Fatty Acids and Depression
Do you know what Trans fatty acids are? Recent studies have shown a correlation between high levels of Trans fatty acids and depression. In this video, I talk about what Trans fatty acids are, how they can affect your mood, and some tips...
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What is Treatment Resistant Depression? What Do We Do about it?
Treatment resistant depression is defined as having 2 failed, 6-week antidepressant trials. Another way of putting is, you have depression, you take medication for at least 6 weeks and you don’t get better. Then you try another...
Curated Video
What is Body Dysmorphic Disorder?
Body dysmorphic disorder (BDD) is a brain disorder that creates faulty and inaccurate perceptions about your appearance. For some people you can even have delusional beliefs that make you think the flaws you see are an accurate...
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What is bipolar spectrum? Will it become bipolar 1 or bipolar 2?
Today's video is about bipolar spectrum illness and is based on a viewer question from Saddam. He asks if his diagnosis of bipolar spectrum will later become bipolar 1 or bipolar 2 disorder. The short answer is that here in the US...
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What is Existential Anxiety?
Do you sometimes feel like life is meaningless? That everything you do doesn't really matter in the grand scheme of things? If so, you might be experiencing existential anxiety. In this video, I'll explain what existential anxiety is,...
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What Is Depersonalization Derealization Disorder?
Depersonalization is defined as feeling unreal and detached from your body’s thoughts, sensation and actions. It’s like you’re observing yourself and your thoughts. Things don’t seem real. Derealization is defined as feeling unreal and...
Curated Video
The Three Best Herbs To Fight Depression
Did you know that many medications are derived from plants? For example, salicin from willow bark is the basis for aspirin, and valeric acid from valerian root is chemically modified to make Valproic acid, which psychiatrists use to...
Curated Video
What is Anxious Depression?
Anxiety and depression often come together. And there's different ways this can look. Sometimes anxiety spawns depression, where you start off with something like obsessive compulsive disorder where you have these overwhelming thoughts...
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What Causes Treatment Resistant Depression?
If you can't seem to get better from your depression treatment. There my be other factors that are contributing that you may be able to change. In this video we look at other causes of depression.
Curated Video
What Causes Depression? – It's Not Just A Chemical Imbalance
The traditional way we approached the cause and treatment of depression is to see it as a chemical imbalance. That is you have in sufficient amounts of the neurotransmitters serotonin, norepinephrine and dopamine and low levels of these...
Curated Video
Two Things You Can Do To Stop Ruminating
The term ruminate means to run a thought over and over in your mind. This is the figurative definition. The literal definition refers to cows regurgitating their food to chew it over and over. Rumination is not a diagnosis all to itself,...
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The Connection Between Anxiety and Stomach Problems
There’s a bidirectional relationship between gastrointestinal disorders and anxiety. This relationship is thought to be controlled by a gut-brain connection. Research studies have concluded that there is signaling between the gut and the...
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Postpartum Depression - What it Really Looks Like
What Postpartum Depression Really Looks Like. This is part one of a series I’m doing on women’s mental health topics. This video is based on a viewer question from Dr. Mohammed El Sherif who is a obstetrician gynecologist with his own...