How does ECT change the brain? A systemic review offers up some answers.

Pandemics create a long list of psychosocial stressors, but COVID-19 also has direct effects on the CNS. Neuropsychiatric syndromes can develop after the respiratory illness resolves. Paul Riordan reviews the cardinal symptoms to look for after a COVID infection.

You may have read about the meta-analysis published in Lancet earlier this year on the efficacy evidence for all antidepressants (Cipriani A et al, Lancet 2018;391(10128):1357–1366). It’s a complicated paper, and in this article, we’ll take a closer look at it and give you our take on the bottom line.

The most common cause of parkinsonism is Parkinson disease, but parkinsonism also can occur from the use of any medication that blocks the D2 (dopamine type 2) receptor. Those include antipsychotics but can also include non-psychiatric medicines, particularly metoclopramide (Reglan), an anti-nausea medicine.

If we think of the molecules (the endorphins or the opioids) as “keys” and the receptors on the neurons as “locks,” then one needs the right key in the lock to get the reward—to turn on the good feelings.

All pain is real. It’s just a question of whether that pain is being triggered by a physical injury or by something else. Studies show that emotional injury activates the same areas of the brain as does physical injury.

Is it useful for psychiatrists to order EEGs on their patients? That’s a perennially controversial question, and one that’s worth revisiting from time to time.

Neurofeedback is a type of biofeedback that uses an EEG to provide feedback to patients. While hooked up to an EEG, patients are shown different images through various forms of media, including video and other tools.

While the age-old tradition of smoking cannabis remains very common, several other options for preparing the drug are becoming widely available and frequently used. In this article, we’ll update you on the modern preparations and routes of administration.

Bruce Cuthbert, PhD, the head of the NIMH’s new Research Domain Criteria (RDoC) program, explains how this new way of funding and conducting research in psychiatry is revolutionizing the field.