Articles related to Psychiatry

The potential link between insulin resistance and bipolar disorder is causing a “paradigm shift in psychiatry,” remarked Dr. Cynthia Calkinan, associate professor of psychiatry at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada.

Researchers studied the effects of four repeated low doses of LSD, administered under lab conditions every three to four days, using approximately 1/8th the dose typically used to “trip” on LSD.

Study: This meta-analysis includes 232 randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trials of drug monotherapy for major depressive disorder submitted to the FDA between 1979 and 2016, and comprises nearly 75,000 adult and child participants. Conclusion: Patients with depression are likely to improve substantially from acute treatment of their depression with drug or placebo. Although the mean effect of antidepressants is only a small improvement over placebo, the effect of active drug seems to increase the probability that any patient will benefit substantially from treatment by about 15%.

Kar-XT adds trospium to xanomeline to substantially improve the second agent’s tolerability, enabling its use to reduce both positive and negative symptoms in schizophrenia. Allopregnanolone, an oral version of brexanolone, is being investigated in MDD. The dextromethorphan and bupropion combo, AXS-05, seeks to offer a new antidepressant option and hydroxynorketamine promises MDD treatment without ketamine’s dissociative effects and abuse potential.

Anxiety disorders are among the most common of psychiatric disorders, with estimates suggesting a lifetime prevalence in the US of approximately 32%. But development of new and effective treatments for anxiety disorders has lagged behind new treatments for other conditions such as major depressive disorder, bipolar disorder, and schizophrenia. This article reviews current treatment and their effectiveness, and highlights the emerging new hopefuls.

Muscle dysmorphia (MD), sometimes referred to as “reverse” or “big” anorexia (colloquially called “bigorexia”) is on the rise, and this article presents a comprehensive review on its history, highlights a few studies, provides the DSM-5 diagnostic criteria for both MD and body dysmorphic disorder (BDD), and discusses the behaviors associated with the conditions, including risk factors, comorbidities, and complications. In addition, the author provides questions to ask to ascertain whether MD may be present.