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Medicine Trial and Error: Missouri Turkey Shoot
2007-04-15 00:00:00
How do you feel when a doc says: I don't know what's going on here, let's give this a shot. Sounds like a Missouri Turkey Shoot to me. Take Notice: The Targets Have Changed! By now you know that I...
More About: Medicine , Cine , Trial

Depression Overlooked: Tips on Clint Eastwood Depression
2007-04-14 00:00:00
If you really look for Clint you will find him hanging out everywhere. He is with us far more than Elvis.In the boardroom, in the streets of the inner city, in the psych office, adolescents, men, and some tough women,...
More About: Depression , Clint Eastwood , Tips , Press

SPECT Scans at Amen Clinics: Different Reads
2007-04-13 00:00:00
SPECT Reviews: Read ings and Readers Differ NB: For those of you watching carefully, this post is a revision of previous posting. This past week joined in a *virtual* [long distance] consult with a medical colleague who recommended a single screening...
More About: Men , Scan , Rent , Clinics

Notes On Participation
2007-04-09 00:00:00
Participation: Familiar word, increasingly familiar practice. -Have had some wonderful on and offline notes on the recent CorePsychBlog page revisions. They look so clean, so professional, so smart, so unmoldy. But hey, that's not me bragging, those remarks are simply...
More About: Note , Notes , Participation , Part , Patio

Mold Madness: Neurotoxins Overlooked 3
2007-04-08 00:00:00
Mold Flood Story: The complexity of the psych presentation encourages missing an important underlying cause. More problems need more complete answers. In the last post I told you I would tell you about a woman from FL. The very morning...
More About: Euro , Roto , Over , Neurot , Ness

Mold Madness: Neurotoxins Overlooked 2
2007-04-07 00:00:00
Mold neurotoxins can leave significant medical and psychiatric consequences. A few points of orientation: Not all mold is toxic: Penicillin is a mold. Some molds, like black mold [Stachybotrys], clearly leave a variety of toxic medical consequences. To name a...
More About: Euro , Roto , Over , Neurot , Ness

Mold Madness: Neurotoxins Overlooked 1
2007-04-05 00:00:00
Many Molds are dangerously Neurot oxic: Sick Buildings Deliver Crippling Brain and Body Blows.A 1984 World Health Organization report into the syndrome suggested up to 30% of new and remodeled buildings worldwide may be linked to symptoms of Sick Building Syndrome....
More About: Euro , Roto , Over , Ness

SPECT Scans at Amen Clinics: Different Reads
2007-03-29 00:00:00
SPECT Reviews: Read ings and Readers Differ This past week joined in a *virtual* [long distance] consult with my good friend and colleague Catherine Fitzgerald PhD, coeditor of the definitive text: Executive Coaching. [Catherine, dedicated to her work, called in from...
More About: Men , Scan , Rent , Clinics

Personal Note: Thanks for the Changes
2007-03-27 00:00:00
Spring Cleaning at CorePsychBlog As you know, our psych science is changing dramatically. We now operate from a different architecture. One of the main reasons: the explosion of information within the blogging process, the blogosphere. I continually add interesting sites...
More About: Personal , Change , Note , Person , Changes

ADD/ADHD Non-Med Treatment: Neurofeedback
2007-03-27 00:00:00
ADD/ADHD: So what do you do if you don't want to use meds? Yes, the meds work fast, and often well, if you work them correctly. I have discussed ADD: The Media, The Meds, and The Madness at CorePsychPodcast with...
More About: Euro , Men , Treatment , Back , Feedback

ADD/ADHD Another New Word
2007-03-19 00:00:00
ADD/ADHD: What kind of problem is it? This brief post, just to keep you on your toes, brings another new word you will find in the ADD/ADHD literature. This one is easy, and trips off the tongue like we have...
More About: Other , Word , Another

ADD/ADHD Innovations in Treatment
2007-03-18 00:00:00
News from the Front: ADD/ADHD Treat ment Options Grow As you know, I do my best to remain informed with both sides of the provider fence: Traditional Psychopharmacology and Systems Medicine. -Just back from a very interesting weekend [the reason for...
More About: Men , Innovations , Innovation

Deeper Recovery: Time, Beyond Labels
2007-03-09 12:06:01
Codependency: Has limited Useful Applications. Let's go a bit deeper. Been around the recovery crowd so long, I get a bit tense about labels. The reason is simple, but complex: Labels [almost always] do not honor the concept of *applied time.* Time brings in the larger concept of *function* [over time] and tracks change and direction. Recovery , most therapy, and most spiritual practice takes us into the big picture, beyond this moment, beyond being locked only to this perception, now. Recovery keeps us from becoming locked in this time and place, frozen, arrested in our view of ourselves and others. Fundamentalism is essentially a labeling process. Think: functional brain imaging as process, not labeling. Recovery, function, deals with the complexity of life, with multiple variables, and change over time. Dry drunks are in "recovery," but frozen in labels, and not recovering in life. Labels, like codependency, freeze time. "Only, always, and never" are...
More About: Cover , Deep

Depression-Stress, Men-Midlfe
2007-03-06 00:03:01
First an apology for the repeat on the immediate previous post. Revised it, stored the revision, and inadvertently resent it. Mainly tried to add a good reference list regarding sputum [yes spit, vs serum, blood] testing for hormone balance, but had trouble posting a word doc link to the blog, so will have to work more with that file this next weekend. But yes, we are staying on message. Stress effects hormones. See our previous two posts on adrenal fatigue. Most women are deeply aware of hormonal changes with stress. But most men don't get it. Yes, women do have adrenal fatigue and hormonal changes, and often they come into the office. Men often don't come into the office - until they are face-on-the-pavement. Several interesting blogs address the challenges with men, their denial, and their patterns with stress, and depression. Over on the psych side we often look for the psychological reframe. We look for ways to approach challenges from a different perspective, to encour...
More About: Depression , Press , Sion

Deep Recovery: Beyond Labels
2007-03-06 00:03:01
Recovery is a workable and understandable process, a grid to leave behind drugs, alcohol, and dependent relationships. Yes, I may carry on about managed care, the FDA, and the misuse of psych meds, but little drives me up to the bullhorn as quickly as the subject of recovery. Ironically the recovery process remains one of the most primitive, iconoclastic, neofreudian bastions of psychobabble in active practice today. Recent reports at CorePsych tell you the words I love. I will tell you now about a word that I find completely useless. More than useless, it causes iatrogenic illness [illness caused by the therapist]. This word encourages regression and reductionistic thinking. It is a label without a meaning as the original use of the word was incorrect: Codependency. So, just what is all this codependency about, and what's the point? Labels kill initiative. Labels are for the uninformed to babble with each other and remain in the babbledream. Yes, I said neofreudian. These folks...
More About: Recovery , Cover , Deep , Beyond

Hormones: SSRIs and Suicide
2007-03-04 06:01:05
Connections Between Hormone Dysregulation, Suicide and "Incurable Depression:" Yesterday spent nine hours with Eldred Taylor, MD [Brd Cert OB-GYN] as he connected and reconnected depression, the inadequacy of treatment with only SSRIs, stress, hormone dysfunction and immune system suppression. He has written a book on this subject available at Amazon, and his presentation, both delivery and content, slammed right out of the park. Several strong traditional OB-GYN colleagues in the room not only stayed for the whole day, but their questions revealed their positive reactions to his new insights built on fundamental science. With extensive, compelling "traditional" references from basic physiology texts [Clinical Gynecologic Endocrinology and Infertility - Speroff, et al] and abundant references from traditional journals [JAMA, NEJM, etc.] he repeatedly demonstrated that: We don't measure hormones effectively and either Don't treat them sufficiently, or W...
More About: Hormones , Cide

Power Breakfast Recipe 1: Eat Protein
2007-03-03 18:00:10
The brain, nutrition and breakfast: almost too basic. Herein resides a solution. Protein ...are you kidding me? I don't eat breakfast, period! Everyday I have this response from someone, actually from many someones. Amazing how little time we all have in the morning, from kids to adults. Lemme see...do they serve breakfast on the school bus? Could I grab a pop-tart on the way out the door? Is it OK if I eat a little later...about noon? I always eat supper well! Break fast habits are terrible, and the problem is completely pandemic. Experts agree, yet few practitioners have the clinical experience of Dr Sidney Baker regarding food, breakfast and brain health. He has written many books on the subject of brain health, and has extensive experience with that ominous canary in the coal mine: childhood autism. In his book on autism he specifically reviews the necessity for a nutritional protein breakfast.   So how does breakfast fit with that complex subject? Well Dr Baker has...
More About: Power , Recipe

The Need for a Custom Job
2007-03-03 18:00:10
Words Do Make the Game: OK, now you'll get to know me a lot better. I love words. I love concepts. And most of all I love applied words, applied concepts. Check this out. Two fresh words for your consideration: In these past posts you will notice that I keep slipping into different ways of thinking about the core of psychiatry, with new words previously reviewed like phenotypic, and endophenotypic. It's about changing the mind maps so we can change the territory. Soon everyone will be dropping these words on their friends at dinner on Saturday night. But for this moment they are still new. If you read "public" commentary like Furious Seasons, and Depression Introspection you will quickly see that the public, the folks on the receiving end of things, wants to change the way "we" think about diagnosis and meds. The public has strong opinions about current medical trends. These are two brand new words to encapsulate the problem. They are not in the big unab...
More About: The N , Need , Custom

Notes on Blog comfort
2007-03-03 18:00:10
Blog solutions: The basics to make it easy This note could make your information gathering life easier. Many of you are just now into blogs [the weblog, a written, always fresh web page of current info] and came to this page with a URL, a "www.corepsychblog.com" address. All that cut and paste could make it more time consuming. Yes, you could save that URL in your bookmarks or even your bookmark bar, but then you have to open the page to see whats up. Suggestion: As you review this page go to the upper right hand corner and sign up for notifications of content at Get Email Updates. These brief topic notes arrive in your email and can be easily sorted as they are just a small email in size anyway. Easier to glance and read, not so much time with connections. All addresses remain confidential and will never be shared with anyone. If you don't want to share your email address, and don't want to mess with email: The orange square, and the other widgets just below can bri...
More About: Blog , Note , Notes , Fort , Comfort

Depression and Vitamin D Deficiency: Overlooked
2007-03-03 18:00:10
Vitamin D Deficiency and Depression : Undetected is Untreated Yes, I am still going on about all those comorbid conditions that can drive a person into "incurable" depression. The references in this post require some careful review for anyone interested in why the meds don't work for serious depression. If you read either of these two references you will quickly see how Vitamin D deficiency is a common condition, more common in African Americans, and will understand why Vitamin D levels make such a difference. Each of these references is loaded with many additional Pub Med references, so they will keep you busy as you wish. Are you interested in basic science? How about anthropology? How about bird flu? Read on. First start with the Vitamin D Council:Yes, you thought you were getting vitamin D in milk. Well you are, but that D is D2, not the bio-available, the useful, D3. The Vitamin D council has a great newsletter, discusses the various perspectives of the research...
More About: Press , Vita , Over , Sion

Metabolism and ADD/ADHD
2007-03-03 18:00:10
ADD/ADHD is often associated with metabolic issues with bowel, liver and associated primary metabolic problems. Adrenal fatigue, covered in two recent posts here, can look very much like ADD/ADHD. You may be interested in the audio program over at CorePsychPodcast today that discusses questions we all should be asking in an effort to improve treatment interventions. These basic remarks are often overlooked and treatable. If you have any thoughts on the fit of that CorePsychPodcast cover from GarageBand will be appreciated. Just doesn't fit. As always will welcome your comments! Please let me know what you think!
More About: Meta , Metabolism

Systems Medicine: Where we are going
2007-03-03 18:00:10
Understanding "System s Medicine :" Is it functional, alternative, integrative, or systems medicine? Pop over to listen to my good friend Mark Hyman talk about these issues on You Tube. His remarks help summarize the progressive, evidenced-based, changes happening in medicine today.
More About: Cine , Systems , Here

Adrenal Fatigue 2: Depression and Suicide
2007-03-03 18:00:10
Suicide outcome a possibility: as SSRIs don't work for Adrenal Fatigue. I have treated several burned out, completely exhausted senior executives who have slammed themselves against the wall for years. Their common denominator: Don't tell anyone how bad this really is for me. I need to keep working. One who comes to mind is out of state, has had several brain scans, is refractory to all meds given in any reasonable way, and becomes toxic, overdosed on even small doses of meds, especially SSRIs. He was thinking of suicide everyday. Hopeless is the operational word. If you have read some of my past remarks on the profound relevance of metabolic measurements in clinical practice you will all appreciate that this very bright fellow/client had done his homework on himself: Lab tests on liver metabolic pathways from Mayo Clinic [comments by Howard Coleman of Genelex}, red cell phospholipid analysis from Hopkins, excellent ION panel from Metametrix, and three sets of SPECT brain scan...
More About: Depression , Press , Suicide , Sion , Cide

Adrenal Fatigue: Depression and Suicide
2007-03-03 18:00:10
Adrenal Fatigue: Untreatable Depression and Suicide We have been talking for multiple posts about depressive conditions that linger beyond the range of current meds - conditions that are refractory to SSRIs. -Conditions that can become worse with SSRIs. We started months ago addressing the fact that the SSRIs could make people suicidal, [prompted by an FDA inquiry]. So do SSRIs cause suicide? Our answer to that remark: emphatically yes, and for many reasons not appreciated by the public or by many providers. Important starting place: often the SSRI itself is not to blame. I am on record as completely for the use of SSRIs as a treatment for depression. I am completely against using SSRIs incorrectly for the wrong diagnosis. SSRIs do not fix adrenal fatigue. Almost any psych med can make adrenal fatigue worse. Yes, SSRIs can make adrenal fatigue much worse. -So can stimulant meds, and so can atypicals [atypical antipsychotics like Seroquel, Abilify, any of them]. If a person is al...
More About: Press , Sion , Cide

Power Breakfast Recipe 2: How on Protein
2007-03-03 18:00:10
Protein works, -if you work it. Yes, I know what many of you are going to say after that last breakfast post- "Good thinking, been there, just can't do that." The simple solution to breakfast: think protein, not "breakfast." Many subsets of protein work, so you can be creative. Oftentimes breakfast is just too complicated. Let's simplify it with some suggestions. I will list a few, you can check out the possibilities, then I will give you the Secret Recipe for the Parker Power Protein Break fast , just don't tell anyone. Some easy protein solutions:First most important rule, and this is a RULE: Get the child involved in the process of selection. Take them to the store, have them think about it. This second part is not a rule, -it is obvious if you have done #1: Have fun with this, make it a project and work with it until you both get it. Take some time. Breakfast is not a girl problem, many guys sneak past breakfast. Then,Start with the ab...
More About: Protein

Notes On ADD: CorePsychPodcast
2007-03-03 18:00:10
Heads up! Some of you may not be tuned into my audio site over at Core PsychPod cast, so just to let you know today I sent over an audio MP3 file, downloadable from iTunes, and playable on your machine. Today, Episode 3: The Wrong Meds - Why they don't work In previous programs: Episode 1: Diagnosis - I discussed the diagnosis of ADD and how we can understand prefrontal cortical function in the office. If we think biologically, functionally, we are closer to making the diagnosis. It's all about thinking and acting in time. Kinda like dancing. Episode 2: Right Meds - How they work. After we make the diagnosis, let's think more carefully about the use of meds. They do work, but only if considered correctly on the front end. Titration, dosage, and selection of meds based upon 1/2 life [duration of effectiveness] are all important subjects. and for today: Episode 3: Wrong Meds - How and why they don't work. Program notes for this episode: Sections: Metabolic differences ...
More About: Podcast , Note , Notes