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.
Psilocybin is going mainstream: Trump has signed an executive order opening psychedelics to patients with severe mental illness, and one in eight American adults has already tried it. But as we dig into the research, a more complicated picture emerges, one that separates the profound personal experience from the clinical evidence.
Two malpractice cases — one worth $2 million — are reshaping the standards of gender-affirming care. This episode traces what went wrong, what held up in court, and what every clinician needs to know when referring patients for gender affirming procedures.
When Dr. Chris Aiken opened a psychotherapy practice in Western North Carolina, treatment-resistant depression wasn’t a specialty he planned for — it was what walked through the door. Most patients arrived having already failed one or more SSRIs prescribed in primary care. The standard next steps — raising the dose, switching classes, adding bupropion, buspirone, or a stimulant — often weren’t enough.
In August 2024, the American Journal of Psychiatry published a landmark update on PTSD by Arieh Shalev, MD, and colleagues at NYU — a comprehensive look at the diagnosis, neuroscience, and treatment of one of psychiatry’s most complex conditions. Dr. Chris Aiken, Editor-in-Chief of The Carlat Psychiatry Report, and his co-host Kellie Newsome, PMHNP took a deep dive into that article in this five-part podcast series.
Our most-listened-to podcast series is now available in full — all ten episodes, free to stream. Dr. Chris Aiken, Editor-in-Chief of The Carlat Psychiatry Report, and Kellie Newsome, PMHNP distill ten essential principles every prescriber should know about psychopharmacology: the rules that keep patients safe, the pitfalls that catch clinicians off guard, and the evidence that should guide your prescribing every day.
One of our most popular 2025 podcast series is now available in full. Dr. Chris Aiken, Editor-in-Chief of The Carlat Psychiatry Report, and Kellie Newsome, PMHNP share expert tips on drug titration — including psych meds that are better tolerated when started faster, and one that must be launched at a high dose and then tapered down to a low maintenance dose. (Spoiler: it’s not buprenorphine.)
Chris Aiken, MD, and Kellie Newsome, PMHNP, have been digging through the Epstein files, and this podcast series brings you updates that shed light on his psychiatric diagnosis.
It's 1979, and Johns Hopkins has just shut down the first gender surgery clinic in the US. But investigations into the biological roots of gender identity are about to reopen those doors — and reshape how medicine thinks about sex, gender, and who gets to decide.
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