Estrogen shapes nearly every neurotransmitter system in the brain, and when it starts to fall, psychiatric disorders often follow. This episode walks through what psychiatrists need to know about the perimenopause: which conditions worsen, which treatments help, and when to call the OB-GYN about hormone replacement therapy.

Premenstrual hormones can destabilize mood, worsen ADHD, trigger psychosis, and drive binge eating. This episode walks through the tools to manage hormonal fluctuations in female patients, from SSRIs to overlooked supplements to the lamotrigine-contraceptive drug interaction.

Women and men respond to psychiatric medications differently. In this first of a four-part series, Chris Aiken and Kellie Newsome walk through why valproate is risky for women, and when it’s worth using; why the FDA cut the zolpidem dose in half for female patients, and why SSRIs outperform tricyclics in women with depression. Plus: a sneak preview of DSM-6.

Marsha Linehan finds the core principles of DBT in a Buddhist monastery, challenges the psychoanalytic establishment, and returns to the hospital where her journey started.

Marsha Linehan makes it out of a long-term psychiatric hospital and vows to develop a better approach to suicidality, reinventing therapy for borderline personality disorder. 

How a tip from Carl Jung inspired Alcoholics Anonymous and the 12-step recovery movement. 

Are psychosis and OCD ever normal? We explore this question from Carl Jung’s breakdown to a new neurologic condition, hyperphantasia. 

Today’s episode is one we’ve been sitting with for a long time. We’re talking about how to survive psychologically in a world where hatred is persistent, not abstract, not metaphorical but recurring, and sometimes lethal.

Some of the people who revolutionized psychiatry lived with mental illness themselves.