Innovative Psychiatry
These articles about OCD (Obsessive-compulsive disorder) are offered to increase understanding and reduce stigma. OCD is a long lasting disorder where a person has recurring, repetitive thoughts and then related compelling behaviors or actions they feel inner pressure to take and repeat over and over…
In response to those obsessive, intrusive thoughts, a person feels pressure within to repetitively take these actions, or perform these behaviors. These behaviors may be
Now, we all know that checking things, or counting, or handwashing are normal behaviors we all do, but it’s different for someone with OCD. This person:
A tic disorder can affect this person in some cases, and can be a motor tic or a vocal tic. In the case of motor tics, the affected person may shrug his shoulders repeatedly, or make a facial grimace, blink his eyes, or jerk his head or shoulder. In each case these are repetitive actions.
Vocal tics include throat clearing, sniffing, and grunting.
All of these symptoms may come and go, may re-emerge in the presence of stress, and may seem normal to children and some adults. However, most adults understand that their behavior is abnormal but feel helpless to control it.
Neuroscience researchers work to find relief for these distressing symptoms.
Because of promising outcomes with IV ketamine combined with mixed results at other times, more studies are being performed.
While causes of OCD are unknown, risk factors include genetics, brain structure and functioning, and environment.
As you read these articles about OCD, consider the symptoms and treatments available and we hope you’ll share your understanding with others who suffer.
Jenni locked the door, then tried the knob. It wouldn’t open. Then, she inserted the key to unlock it, opened the door and closed it again, locked it, and tried the knob. It seemed locked, but what if it wasn’t? She inserted the key and unlocked it, opened and closed the door again, and locked […]
Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder or OCD is a term that is sometimes thrown around mistakenly. It’s sometimes used to describe someone’s careful behavior… you know, like careful organization, attention to detail, or a tendency toward cleanliness, which of themselves are actually normal behaviors. Many of us may be particular about these things without giving them a second […]
I just returned from the American Psychiatric Association’s 2019 Conference in San Francisco. This is the 175th Anniversary of the APA, and look how far we’ve come. The theme this year was: Revitalize Psychiatry – Disrupt – Include – Engage – Innovate. and it certainly provided fodder toward those goals. It was an informative and […]
“Though I am often in the depth of misery, there is still calmness, pure harmony, and music inside me.” —Vincent Van Gogh May is Mental Health Awareness Month, and I’ve been thinking about how to disrupt the stigma of “mental illness.” It’s a term I don’t like – but it’s still used throughout the world, […]
We celebrated Mother’s Day yesterday. What was it like for you? We truly hope you enjoyed a day of love and hugs as you celebrated with your children. But if you’re a mom who has lost a child, and especially if you’ve lost a child by suicide, this is a day that reminds you of […]
Originally published in Brain & Behavior Magazine, July 2017 An important discovery has been made at the University of Pittsburgh. It raises the prospect that there may be an entirely new way of relieving major depression in people who repeatedly have failed to respond to existing treatments—people at elevated risk for suicide whose lives are often unrelentingly dark […]
No Wonder Treatment Resistance Has Been Such a Mystery! Clue: Look in the Cerebral Spinal Fluid! A man in his forties, Greg had never experienced life without depression. Treating mood disorders didn’t seem to be his psychiatrist’s forte. (Oh boy…) At least not in his case. Every accomplishment, every failure, struggled for expression beneath the […]
In a world where things go wrong and people get sick, every once in awhile something comes along that makes things right again. I’m talking about something that’s so dramatic in its solutions we’re tempted to call it a “miracle.” But we won’t. We’ll call it a game-changer. Because IV ketamine treatment is changing history. […]
The anesthetic-cum-party drug restores the ability to make connections among brain cells. The Food and Drug Administration’s approval last month of a depression treatment based on ketamine generated headlines, in part, because the drug represents a completely new approach for dealing with a condition the World Health Organisation has labelled the leading cause of disability […]
“If I see far, it’s that I stand on the shoulders of giants.” If you find yourself feeling alone and forgotten in your symptoms, feeling that there’s no one who really cares, please let me emphasize that there are hundreds, even thousands, of neuroscience researchers, medical doctors with PhDs, biochemists, psychopharmacologists, and psychiatrists who have […]