Psychotic Disorders Archives

Schizophrenia in Women – Role of Estrogen and Novel Treatments

February 26, 2018

Prof Jayashri Kulkarni, Professor of Psychiatry and Director of Monash Alfred Psychiatry Research Centre, discusses the unique aspects of schizophrenia in women. Estrogen is a gonadal hormone that can exert powerful effects in numerous regions of the brain, consequently affecting mood, cognition, and behaviour. We…

Internet Addiction Disorder – Case Files of Internet Addiction Disorder and Psychosis

February 19, 2018

Excessive internet use, especially among adolescents and its health implications, have been a much-discussed topic recently. Problematic internet use or Internet addiction disorder (IAD) is still not an official diagnosis in psychiatric classification systems. Dr.Kimberly Young had first proposed diagnostic criteria for Internet Addiction Disorder…

The Dopamine Hypothesis of Schizophrenia – Advances in Neurobiology and Clinical Application

January 27, 2018

Dopamine is synthesised from the amino acid tyrosine. Tyrosine is converted into DOPA by the enzyme tyrosine hydroxylase. DOPA is converted into dopamine (DA) by the enzyme DOPA decarboxylase (DOPADC). This dopamine is packed and stored into synaptic vesicles via the vesicular monoamine transporter (VMAT2)…

Folie à Deux – Shared Psychotic Disorder

June 15, 2017

Folie à deux is a shared psychotic disorder where the delusion is shared between two individuals. Criteria for a folie à deux as described by Dewhurst and Todd: definite evidence that the partners had been in intimate association a high degree of commonality in the…

Movement Disorders with Antipsychotic Medication – Conversations with Dr Stephen Stahl

April 25, 2017

This interview is the sixth as part of a series of brief interviews where Dr Sanil Rege talks to Dr Stephen Stahl about key issues that face psychiatry and our patients. Dr Stahl, MD, is a practicing Psychiatrist in Carlsbad, USA, and author of the…

Delay in Starting Clozapine in Treatment Resistant Schizophrenia – Why it Matters

April 13, 2017

Clozapine was first introduced into practice in the 1960’s. However, in 1976, there were reports of fatal agranulocytosis (drastic reduction in white blood cells), which resulted in its complete withdrawal from the market. Then, in 1990, it was again approved but only as a third…

What is the HCR-20? – Historical Clinical and Risk Management 20

April 7, 2017

The Historical, Clinical and Risk Management – 20 (HCR -20) is a structured tool to assess the risk of violence. The items are below. Historical items H1 Violence As a child (under 12 years) As an adolescent (13-17 years) As an adult (18 and over)…

Niemann Pick Type C – What Can a Neurometabolic Disorder Tell Us About The Underlying Pathophysiology of Schizophrenia?

April 3, 2017

In the last decade another neurometabolic disorder has been increasingly recognized as a cause of “secondary” schizophrenia. Niemann-Pick disease type C (NPC) is a recessive neurovisceral disorder affecting intracellular cholesterol trafficking, and occurs in 1:100,000 individuals in a pan ethnic distribution. Dysfunction of the NPC1…

Managing Metabolic Syndrome and The ‘It’s My Son Test’- Conversations with Dr Stephen Stahl

March 20, 2017

This interview is the fifth as part of a series of brief interviews where Dr Sanil Rege talks to Dr Stephen Stahl about key issues that face psychiatry and our patients. Dr Stahl, MD, is a practicing Psychiatrist in Carlsbad, USA, and author of the…

A Journey on the Metabolic Highway – Conversations with Dr Stephen Stahl

February 23, 2017

This interview is the fourth as part of a series of brief interviews where Dr Sanil Rege talks to Dr Stephen Stahl about key issues that face psychiatry and our patients. Dr Stahl, MD, is a practising Psychiatrist in Carlsbad, USA, and author of the…

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