Anhedonia, meaning the loss of the normal experience of pleasure in life, can be one of the most troubling symptoms of depression. And also one for which we have relatively few treatments. We know that a small group of dopamine neurons in the ventral tegmentum (limbic system) which project to the prefrontal cortex, among other locations in the brain, are …
Meditation Tricks
Most of us in the Gateway Clinic have been encouraging our patients to take up meditation for years. We will explain how it works, and what the benefits are, we’ll suggest books on the topic, recommend guided meditation sources, follow up on those recommendations, and follow up, and follow up… And yet, this has been an exercise in frustration. Very rarely …
TMS Media – The Doctors
TMS Media – “The Doctors” December 3 I am excited to share with you that on December 3rd “The Doctors” featured a segment on TMS. Todd Hutton, MD, Medical Director, Southern California TMS Center, was invited to appear with a patient who is doing great 18 months post TMS treatment. I hope you can watch and that this contributes to further awareness …
Beta Catenin and Depression
Beta catenin is a molecule that may play a key role in preventing depression in those exposed to stress, at least if mice and humans share the same biology. Beta catenin is involved in a number of quite different functions in the cell. To give you an idea, it may be involved in the development of cancer (it is a …
New Staff
I am pleased to welcome a young woman, Hershe Gesmundo to this site. She is going to be working with me on a number of administrative projects related to this site, and to the companion site – MoodSurfing.com. Hershe had this to say about herself – Hershe Gesmundo is a development practitioner who specializes in the areas of project management, …
Anhedonia Treatment with Ketamine
The treatment of anhedonia and bipolar depression can be very difficult. An article published in Translational Psychiatry in October of 2014 highlights the role of glutametergic transmission in anhedonia and points to the potentially unique efficacy of ketamine in treating this stubborn problem. Anhedonia, the lack (an-) of pleasure (-hedonia), is one of the 2 main symptoms of a major …
Telepsychiatry – A Breakthrough at Gateway Psychiatric?
We have begun to implement a new platform for telepsychiatry at Gateway Psychiatric. We’ve signed up with Breakthrough mental health which provides a secure, HIPAA compliant, platform for online counseling and telepsychiatry. Telepsychiatry allows us to provide care for patients throughout California. For many people we will need to have only one in person meeting a year, and the rest can take place …
Psychiatric Nurse Practitioner Jobs
Psychiatric nurse practitioner jobs are fairly numerous in California, but we think we may have a unique opportunity for the right applicant. This has been a very busy fall at Gateway, we are in the midst of significant expansion in the practice with the result that we are looking to hire another psychiatric and mental health nurse practioner for our …
Integrated Medical and Mental Health Care Works
Integrated medical and mental health care works. And this may be psychiatry’s moment to shine. That’s the suggestion made by an expert in the field of health management in a lecture that he gave at last week’s institute for Psychiatric Services Meeting in San Francisco. He cites increasing focus on managing people with chronic medical conditions and high cost — …
Brain Morphometry Separates Bipolar vs Unipolar
Brain Morphometry refers to a technique for comparing the sizes of different structures in the brain. A new study suggests that using MRI scans of brains it is possible to distinguish between bipolar and unipolar depression with some degree of accuracy (70 – 80% accuracy). The study looked at two separate groups of patients, one from Munster, Germany and one …