natural treatments Carlat Reports

Expert Q&A

From The Carlat Psychiatry Report, ADHD

Topics: ADHD | attention | Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder | Complimentary Medicine | natural treatments

TCPR: What’s missing in how we treat ADHD? Dr. Brown: Even with stimulant treatment, patients can still have a lot of executive dysfunction. Many have comorbid conditions like dyslexia or processing disorders that stimulants do not treat. TCPR: How do you screen for those problems? Dr. Brown: Neuropsychological testing is not necessary for di

Clinical Update

How to Prescribe Omega-3 Fatty Acids

From The Carlat Psychiatry Report, Living With Mental Illness

Omega-3 fatty acids (“fish oil”) claim broad benefits in physical and mental health and have even made it into a few treatment guidelines in psychiatry. But most products on the shelf do not have the right ingredients for psychiatric use. In this article, I’ll review how and when to use omega-3s. Mechanism Omega-3s are “essential fatty acids

Clinical Update

How to Use SAMe in Clinical Practice

From The Carlat Psychiatry Report, The Difficult Patient

S-adenosylmethionine (SAMe) is an over-the-counter supplement that’s usually lumped with the complementary and alternative (CAM) therapies in psychiatry. However, it is one of a few CAM therapies with efficacy that rivals standard medications. SAMe raises levels of serotonin, dopamine, and norepinephrine, acting in some ways like the fabled triple reu

Expert Q&A

Nutritional Psychiatry in Practice

From The Carlat Psychiatry Report, Bipolar Disorder

TCPR: Why should we talk about diet with our patients? Dr. Ramsey: I am an avid practitioner of psychotherapy and psychopharmacology, but we often need more tools to help our patients, and there is a lot of science behind nutritional psychiatry. There are now three randomized trials showing that people with depression can benefit by shifting to a Medit

Research Update

Omega-3s and Metabolic Risks in Schizophrenia

From The Carlat Psychiatry Report, Mood Disorders

REVIEW OF: Pawełczyk T et al, Schizophr Res 2021;230:61–68 TYPE OF STUDY: Randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial Patients with schizophrenia are at greater risk for metabolic syndrome, whether from lifestyle, antipsychotic side effects, or the illness itself. Omega-3 fatty acids have metabolic benefits in the general population, and lev

Research Update

Shining a Light on PTSD

From The Carlat Psychiatry Report, Depression

Review of: Youngstedt SD et al, Mil Med 2021 (Epub ahead of print) Study type: Randomized, sham-controlled trial As stated in the previous brief, PTSD is difficult to treat, and numerous interventions for PTSD have failed with veterans. This study took a different approach; it is the first randomized controlled trial of light therapy for PTSD. Conduc

Expert Q&A

Probiotics in Psychiatry

From The Carlat Psychiatry Report, Mind-Gut Connection

TCPR: What is the gut microbiome? Dr. Dinan: It is the collection of microorganisms within the intestine. It functions like a separate organ and is about the same weight as an adult brain. Mainly it’s made up of bacteria, which is where our research has focused, but there are viruses and fungi in there as well. The traditional view was that these org

Clinical Update

Silexan: A Novel Anxiolytic

From The Carlat Psychiatry Report, Traumatic Brain Injury

Patients with generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) often look to medications for help, but GAD is one of the disorders where medications are likely to disappoint. Effect sizes tend to fall in the small range (0.2–0.3) with meds for GAD, including SSRIs, SNRIs, buspirone, and pregabalin (Lyrica). Only the benzodiazepines have an effect in GAD that’s bi

Expert Q&A

Micronutrients in Mental Health

From The Carlat Psychiatry Report, Adult ADHD

TCPR: You’ve studied micronutrients in ADHD and other psychiatric disorders. What are micronutrients?Dr. Rucklidge: They are small nutrients—vitamins, minerals, and amino acids—that are essential for your brain to function optimally. They include cofactors like B6, zinc, and magnesium that are involved in the synthesis of neurotransmitters and h

Clinical Update

A Practical Guide to Light Therapy

From The Carlat Psychiatry Report, Adult ADHD

Outdoor living, morning light, evening darkness, and regular rhythms of sleep and waking all have one thing in common: They prevent depression. That’s the conclusion of many large epidemiologic studies, but for people who work indoors and wake up to dark winter mornings, this isn’t good news (Asai Y et al, J Affect Disord 2018;241:235–240). Here�

Clinical Update

Treating Sexual Dysfunction in Women

From The Carlat Psychiatry Report, Mental Health Apps

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