Mental Health

kwanchaift/AdobeStock The 2022 Neuroscience Education Institute (NEI) Congress, a psychopharmacology conference for mental health clinicians, provided clinical updates and reviews on several important topics in psychiatry. Held November 9 to 12 in Colorado Springs, Colorado, the conference was attended virtually and in person. If you were unable to attend, do not worry— Psychiatric Times ™ has you covered. Motivational Interviewing Benefits Patients With Schizophrenia "Patients aren't going to do things unless there is something that motivates them," Amber Hoberg, MSN, APRN, PMHNP-BC, said during a presentation at the 2022 NEI Congress in November. In the presentation, Hoberg and Leslie Citrome, MD, MPH, discussed how motivational interviewing (MI) lets patients with schizophrenia and their families share in the decision-making process of determining treatment goals and helps clinicians communicate with patients in an empathetic manner that encourages adherence. Citrome a...

Bollywood singer Yo Yo Honey Singh decided to take a long break from the film and music industry a few years back to deal with alcoholism and depression. Although the singer has always been open about his mental health issues. he recently went on to confess that he also faced bipolar disorder. In a recent interview, Singh spoke about the reactions he received after his comeback. The singer revealed that his songs were accepted by the people but he was not. In an interview with Siddharth Kanan, Yo Yo Honey Singh said, "When I fell ill a lot of things were going on in life. I had the SLAM tour with Shah Rukh Khan. I had worked on a Star Plus project, I chose its name. I designed it for a year. When the show started, a lot of work was there. I was also doing a Punjabi film. A lot of things were happening. When I collapsed, when I had bipolar disorder and psychotic symptoms on set of Raw Star, maine kaha kuch problem hai mere dimaag mein, kuch hogaya hai...

Abstract Schizophrenia (SZ) is associated with an increased risk of life-long cognitive impairments, age-related chronic disease, and premature mortality. We investigated evidence for advanced brain ageing in adult SZ patients, and whether this was associated with clinical characteristics in a prospective meta-analytic study conducted by the ENIGMA Schizophrenia Working Group. The study included data from 26 cohorts worldwide, with a total of 2803 SZ patients (mean age 34.2 years; range 18–72 years; 67% male) and 2598 healthy controls (mean age 33.8 years, range 18–73 years, 55% male). Brain-predicted age was individually estimated using a model trained on independent data based on 68 measures of cortical thickness and surface area, 7 subcortical volumes, lateral ventricular volumes and total intracranial volume, all derived from T1-weighted brain magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans. Deviations from a healthy brain ageing trajectory were assessed by the difference between brain-pred...

Imagine you are walking home from the last day of school before spring break. You plop on your bed, kick off your shoes and take a sigh of relief. No school for a week. At least that is what Tatiana Tipton and the class of 2020 thought. Not only did COVID-19 unleash a virus that affected the entire globe, but the growing pandemic also triggered an epidemic of anxiety and depression among America's Generation Z and millennial populations. And many people turned to cannabis, as opposed to prescribed medication, to calm their minds. In 2021, cannabis sales increased to $30 billion, 40% higher than the previous year. The United States is expected to make up 75% of global cannabis sales in 2026. "I believe that cannabis has been more effective in fighting my anxiety and depression," Tatiana Tipton said. Tipton is a third-year computer science major at the University of Florida, who began her freshman semester in the middle of the pandemic in August 2020. "I am...

AndriiZastrozhnov/AdobeStock RESEARCH UPDATE CASE VIGNETTE "Mrs Brick" is a 56-year-old Caucasian female with a history of chronic schizophrenia. She has been stable on a medication regimen of risperidone 4 mg at bedtime and citalopram 20 mg in the morning. However, in the past 6 months, she experienced the loss of both her mother due to cardiovascular disease and her brother, who died within 2 months of a cancer diagnosis. Mrs Brick was brought into the emergency department by her husband, due to self-care deficits. She has not been eating well, with a 15-pound weight loss in the past 2 months. She has low energy and poor concentration. She has been isolating in bed most of the time, and requires significant prompting to attend to personal hygiene. On exam, she has profound psychomotor retardation, poverty of speech, and increased latency of response. She also exhibited some mild posturing. Mrs Brick was admitted to the inpatient psychiatric unit. Laboratory studies were unr...

Someone with  bipolar disorder — formerly known as manic depression — typically experiences extreme shifts in mood and energy levels. These shifts alternate between periods of feeling extremely upbeat, elated, or energized (called a "manic" or "hypomanic episode") and feeling deeply sad and hopeless (called a "depressive episode"). Many treatments — such as medication and psychotherapy — can help manage the symptoms of this mental health condition. Certain lifestyle strategies, such as eating nutrient-rich foods, can help people with the condition stay well, too. Of course, a healthy diet is not a substitute for standard treatments. However, it's still important for people with bipolar disorder because they are prone to deficiencies in certain essential vitamins and minerals, such as various B vitamins and  omega-3 fatty acids , which may be at least partly related to a poorer diet, according to a systematic review published in May ...

Joe Tracini explains what living with borderline personality disorder is like, sharing 'the hard things'. (Getty Images) Joe Tracini has opened up about his mental health in a powerful new interview sharing how he "can't find a reason to live most days, but can always find a reason not to die". Appearing on BBC Radio 2's The Zoe Ball Breakfast Show on Tuesday 13 December, the actor-turned-author, 34, was asked by Ball about what it's like to live with borderline personality disorder (BPD). "It's like bipolar. Essentially I've got an emotional disorder, so I feel things wrong and I often feel too much at the wrong times," he explains. "To the point where life feels often unbearable because my plane of existence is very different to the common experience, and so yeah, that is basically what I'm doing, I just keep walking around trying to tell as many people as I can that I'm not alright." He adds, bravely, "If you se...