Sex-Based Treatment of Schizophrenia

Topics: Estrogen | Female Issues in Psychiatry | Gender | Hormone Replacement Therapy | HRT | Oral Contraceptives | Osteporosis | Post-menopausal | Prolactin | Raloxifene | SERM (Selective Estrogen Receptor Modulator) | Women’s Issues in Psychiatry

CHPR: Dr. Kulkarni, you’ve written about sex-based differences in symptoms and prognosis of schizophrenia. What are some of these differences? Dr. Kulkarni: Compared to men, women with schizophrenia experience a more benign course of illness, including fewer psychiatric relapses and hospitalizations. They are more likely to be employed and married an

Anti-NMDA Receptor Encephalitis or New-Onset Psychosis?

Topics: Anti-NMDA Receptor Encephalitis | Encephalitis | Female Issues in Psychiatry | NMDA | Psychosis | Women’s Issues in Psychiatry

Review of: Xu X et al, Neurol Neuroimmunol Neuroinflamm 2019;7(1):e633 You may have heard of the book Brain on Fire: My Month of Madness by Susannah Cahalan (later made into a movie). Cahalan, a successful journalist, describes her brief psychotic episode that led to hospitalizations and mistaken psychiatric diagnoses. She was eventually diagnosed wi

Mood and Menopause

Topics: Antidepressants | Citalopram | Depressive Disorder | Effexor | Escitalopram | Female Issues in Psychiatry | Fluoxetine | gabapentin | Gender | Hormone Replacement Therapy | Oral Contraceptives | Prozac | Serotonin Specific Reuptake Inhibitors (SSRIs) | SSRIs | Women’s Issues in Psychiatry

TCPR: When does perimenopausal depression tend to start?Dr. Nonacs: It’s during the transition into menopause that women are most vulnerable to depression. And that transition can actually take quite a while, like 5–7 years. TCPR: How does it present?Dr. Nonacs: Often they’ve had a history of depression, but have done fairly well up to this point

Treating Sexual Dysfunction in Women

Topics: Addyi | Alternative treatments | Bupropion | Complimentary treatments | Female hypoactive sexual desire disorder | Female Issues in Psychiatry | natural treatments | Sex Therapy | Vyleesi

With the marketing of two new treatments for female sexual dysfunction, one thing is certain: You can expect to see more patients asking for these medications. What’s less certain is whether they will work. Flibanserin (Addyi) and bremelanotide (Vyleesi), the two FDA-approved treatments, both have small effect sizes (0.3–0.4) on various measures o

FDA Approves a Hormonal Injection for Low Libido in Women

Topics: Addyi | Female hypoactive sexual desire disorder | Female Issues in Psychiatry | Low libido | Sexual Dysfunction | Vyleesi | Women’s Issues in Psychiatry

On June 24, 2019, the FDA approved Vyleesi (bremelanotide injection) for the treatment of hypoactive sexual desire disorder (HSDD) in premenopausal women. Bremelanotide is an analogue of the α-melanocyte-stimulating hormone, which activates melanocortin in the nervous system. This hormone was originally explored as a sunless tanning agent in the 1980s.