Prof. Jayashri Kulkarni delivering a fascinating and passionate talk on Women’s Mental Health. Prof Kulkarni is a Professor of Psychiatry and Director of Monash Alfred Psychiatry Research Centre.

Take-home messages

1. Investment is required in the field of women’s mental health due to unique variables impacting on women’s health.
2. “There are differences in liver enzymes, neuroendocrine interactions, and psychiatric illness can obviously differ in men and women because of the gender differences in the social responsibilities and the expectations’…in order to provide the best quality care for our patients we need to start to think about the gender aspects in front of us
3. Researchers need to take the gender variable into account in designing studies. “Have researchers considered the genders of the participants?
4. Complex Trauma Disorder (Borderline Personality Disorder)
   

   I believe that… Borderline Personality Disorder is a particularly horrible term. Personality Disorder is a pejorative term and carries with it an enormous amount of stigma.

5. Symptoms of Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD)/Complex Trauma Disorder (CTD) include deep feelings of insecurity, fear of abandonment and loss, inappropriate anger, fragile sense of self, dissociation with stress, persistent impulsiveness, and self-harm.
6. There is a complex link between trauma, cortisol, mental health and endocrine disorders such as Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome (PCOS).

I constantly refer to Borderline Personality Disorder as The Blob – it encompasses symptoms of a variety of different disorders

The biology of Borderline is poorly researched – however, what is known is that glucocorticoids released from the adrenal cortex during stress have adverse effects on cognitive functions such as learning and memory.

There is a very intimate link between abuse and all of these physical parameters, plus also the rage, the self-harm, the self-identity that’s disturbed, the fears of abandonment, and those difficulties leading to problems with relationships and work.

Quiz

Learn more

1. Tibolone As Adjunctive Treatment in Perimenopausal Depression By Prof Jayashri Kulkarni
2. HRT vs Antidepressants in Perimenopausal Depression by Prof Jayashri Kulkarni
3. The Relationship Between Estrogen and Mood by Professor Jayashri Kulkarni
4. Premenstrual dysphoric disorder (PMDD) and Hormonal Treatments by Professor Jayashri Kulkarni
5. Gender Differences in Mental Health by Professor Jayashri Kulkarni
6. Prof Jayashri Kulkarni’s Tips On Prescribing Antipsychotics in Pregnancy
7. Trauma and Complex Trauma Disorder by Prof Jayashri Kulkarni
8. Schizophrenia in Women – Role of Estrogen and Novel Treatments
9. Hormones and Mental Illness in Women – PMDD / Depression and the Pill / Perimenopausal Depression