Ketamine Works Even When You Feel Nothing Patients who receive ketamine for depression, PTSD or other indications, experience distortions of time and space, and a loss of sense of self, during the peak blood levels of ketamine. These so-called psychedelic effects are classified as side effects and they are not considered to be essential to […]
Suicidal Disorder, Antisuicidal Medications, and the Limits of Prediction Suicide is the tenth most common cause of death in the US. It is a terrible loss for the survivors and a great burden to society in general. Providers of mental health treatments spend a lot of time during their professional education learning about the causes, […]
Topiramate (Topamax): More Than What It’s Called! Patients frequently ask their psychiatrist: “Why are you prescribing me an antidepressant for anxiety when I’m not depressed?” or “Why are you prescribing me an antipsychotic for depression?” Their puzzlement is caused by the categorization of medications with clear-cut labels. It originated from the initial decades of pharmacotherapy, […]
A respected psychiatric journal, JAMA Psychiatry, recently published a study, in which they showed that an increasing number of psychiatrists in the US have been opting out of accepting payment for services by insurance and will only see patients who pay upfront, out-of-pocket, for office visits. While the frequency of such direct-pay practices has remain unchanged […]
Lavender: The Plant with Surprising Effects Lavender was first used in ancient Egypt and Greece as a fragrance, and it has been used for its healing properties since the days of the Roman Empire. This knowledge was furthered by the Arabs and then preserved by the monasteries in medieval Europe. Its use as a medicine […]
Known as ‘brain zaps,’ these perplexing phenomena are a fairly common yet poorly understood side effect of antidepressant discontinuation. Brain zaps are sensations perceived as electrical flashes occurring inside the brain, typically experienced when the levels of antidepressants in the brain are dropping. The aptly descriptive term “brain zaps” emerged on Internet discussion boards, but it […]
In the summer of 2019, a young man, Elijah McClain, died after being arrested by the police. During the arrest he became agitated and EMTs were called to the scene. The EMTs injected Elijah with ketamine to “sedate” him. He died at the hospital several days later. Ketamine is NOT a sedative. Sedatives trigger a set […]