BRΛINCAST by Maudsley Learning

What is FND?  Freud, Janet or neither?  Is there a link with trauma? What is a positive diagnosis? Are there any biomarkers? What about medication? Most importantly, how can we improve patient experience?

What drives differences between male and female brains? Is there sex-specific vulnerability to disorders?  Are there sex-specific treatments? How can we separate effects of sex from gender?

They are one of the most commonly used medication in Medicine with a wide range of indications, yet carry a bad reputation...

BRΛINCAST continues with Pospo and Professor Gustavo Turecki, on suicide

500+ publications 43,000 citations  2020 highly cited scientists  30+ career awards  all while trying to understand the changes that occur in the brain in depression and...  Suicide

Can you prevent migraines? What is the CGRP pathway? Alternatives to medication? What’s the impact of culture? Is there a way to objectively measure pain? COVID-19 headache; is that a thing? All this discussed and more in this weeks BRAINCAST. 

Nadia Micali, MD, MRCPsych, PhD, FAED, is Professor of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at the University of Geneva and head of the Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Division, Geneva University Hospital, Switzerland. She leads a research lab focusing on risk factors, neurobiology, and treatment of feeding and eating disorders. She is also Associate Professor at the Great Ormond Street Institute of Child health, UCL, London. She received her MD from the University of Messina School of Medicine in Italy, and her PhD from the Institute of Psychiatry, King’s College London. She trained in Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, with a focus on Eating Disorders at the Maudsley Hospital and Institute of Psychiatry, London, UK, and as an epidemiologist at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, London, before becoming a Senior Lecturer and Consultant Psychiatrist at the Institute of Child health, University College London and Great Ormond Street Hospital. Most recently she was Associate Professor of psychiatry at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, US. Over the course of her career, Dr. Micali has written over 160 peer reviewed papers and has given over 50 lectures and presentations around the world since starting her career in research. In the last 15 years Dr. Micali’s research has focused on understanding biological and intergenerational risk for eating disorders using a developmental perspective. The impact of Dr. Micali’s research is underscored by her role as associate editor on top journals in the field, including European Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, European Eating Disorders review, and British Journal of Psychiatry Open. She has several research collaborations across Europe and the US. She currently serves as an elected executive board member on the Eating Disorders Research Society (for which she served as president in 2015); she served on several committees of the Academy of Eating Disorders (AED) between 2005-2020. Dr. Micali’s contributions to the field of eating disorders have been recognized by several awards, most notably a prestigious fellowship by the Academy of Eating Disorders in 2014, her election as 2015 President of the Eating Disorders Research Society, and several prizes.

Dr. Aristotle Voineskos is the Vice President of Research and Director of the Campbell Family  Mental Health Research Institute at CAMH. He leads a team of over 150 scientists and  approximately 600 research staff committed to making discoveries to improve the quality of life for  people served by CAMH, and beyond, through brain science, clinical research, health services  research, and policy and population health research. Dr. Voineskos has an outstanding track-record  as a clinician, a scientist, and a leader, driving change to improve care for people with mental illness.

Dr. Voineskos earned his MD and PhD at the University of Toronto, and completed a research  fellowship at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School. Dr. Voineskos founded the  Kimel Family Translational Imaging-Genetics Laboratory at CAMH. He was also the inaugural  Director of the Slaight Family Centre for Youth in Transition at CAMH, and served as the Chief of the  Schizophrenia Division. He has won numerous awards for research and academic excellence  nationally and internationally. His scientific impact ranges from brain mapping in mental illness to  scaling system-level initiatives in mental health care.

Dr. Voineskos is known for his international research leadership in psychosis and schizophrenia,  serving on the editorial board of Schizophrenia Bulletin, and as the co-Chair of the Schizophrenia  International Research Society 2021 meeting. He has published over 200 papers many of which are  in the leading journals of psychiatry, neurology, medicine, and neuroscience. In addition, he is known  for his leadership on large-scale international multi-centre research initiatives across disciplines  funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research and National Institute of Mental Health in the  United States. A dedicated teacher and mentor, he is a Professor in the Department of Psychiatry at  the University of Toronto, holds a Canada Research Chair, and serves on the Scientific Council of  the Brain and Behavior Research Foundation (BBRF).

BRΛINCAST continues with Pospo and Dr Melissa E Murray to discuss Alzheimer’s not as typical as you think

It’s been a long time coming...  

21% of NHS workforce are from an ethnic minority 

7.4% of NHS very senior managers are from an ethnic minority 

63% of covid-19 related deaths of NHS workers are from ethnic minorities  

Things have certainly moved forward since the 60’s but how close are we to the change Sam Cooke sang about?

How is Phenomenology linked to Psychopathology? Are they relevant to diagnosis? Are they compatible with an “outcomes-driven” NHS? Is DSM dehumanising? 

“...our task is not to ‘'learn psychopathology” but to learn to observe, ask questions, analyse and think in psychopathological terms” Karl Jaspers (1883-1969) 

Oh, and there’s a new SIMS coming out...yes, Prof Femi Oyebode is editing it!

In this weeks episode Pospo met Psychiatrist of the year 2020 and Royal Society of Medicine Psychiatry President, Professor Henrietta Bowden-Jones, who is the  founder and Director of the National centre for Gaming Disorders, the first and only NHS clinic to treat Gaming Disorder. Why do we love playing video games? How much is too much? Are age and sex, relevant? Is it all doom and gloom? How can the $150+ billion industry help? All this and more discussed in this episode.

They recognised, described and treated what we now call mental health disorders, “just” a few thousand years ago! What can we learn from them?   Cuneiform texts on confusion, depression, 'seizing-of-the-mouth', and more. In this episode, Pospo and Dr Moudhy talk about understandings of mental illness in Assyrian and Babylonian medical texts.

With 1 in 6 children in the UK facing difficulties with mental health there is an increasing need for collaboration between Mental Health and Education Services. Sounds straightforward...is it? Today we discuss schools + Mental Health.

A symptom or a syndrome? A diagnostic conundrum for sure, when it comes to uncovering its root cause! How is it linked with fear? Scales, benzodiazepines and common treatment pitfalls...Catatonia.

“Happy is the one who is healthy in his body, rich in his soul and well-natured.” Thales of Miletus. Trapped between walls, locked behind bright screens, lifestyles have become more sedentary than ever, affecting all aspects of our health. We do have a trustworthy ally: Physical Activity + Mental Health.

Increasing demands, Limited resources,Tough decisions. Welcome to the world of Health Economics!   Is it a necessary evil of an unjust society or a tool to break the circle between poverty and mental illness? How is it affecting clinical practice? Economic benefits of vaccination? All this and more in this weeks episode.

Neuropsychiatric complications of COVID-19: SARS-CoV-2 is a respiratory virus but has many tricks up its sleeve. From fatigue to stroke, evidence suggests it may present with neurological and psychiatric symptoms. What do we know so far? What is long covid?

How does stigma affect health provision to our patients? Are psychiatric hospitals equipped to respond to other physical comorbidities? Are medication innocent? What are risk modifiable factors?

Induced pluripotent stem cells, neural/glial progenitor cells, gene editing, cell replacement, regeneration, cerebral organoids! Enter the beautiful world of Neuroscience where anything is possible...but are we there yet? All this discussed and more in this weeks episode.

Tics! Voluntary or involuntary? What is the difference with a compulsion? Where is the tic generator in the brain? How are they impacting on people’s lives? Ecocipam or cbit? All discussed in this weeks episode.

Since the discovery of chlorpromazine, dopamine dominated our efforts to understand and treat psychosis, not always with success. Is glutamate the answer? All you want to know about glutamate and psychosis in this weeks episode.

What is ayahuasca? Is it the most “psychoanalytic” psychedelic? Can it make you see with eyes closed? How are visions linked to psychotherapy? Are all people ready for its profound effect?  Does culture affect drug policy? All discussed in this weeks episode.

Where is the dream factory in the brain? What happens to consciousness when we sleep? Can people with paraplegia from birth walk in their dreams? Can you predict a psychotic relapse by monitoring sleep? What makes a sleep history good? All this and more in this weeks BRΛINCAST episode.

How do psychedelics make your brain “escape”? Can a near-death-experience be a good thing? MDMA-assisted psychotherapy, anyone? Should politicians be breathalysed before voting? Pospo meets Professor David Nutt in this weeks episode. 

Change of tune this Monday as BRΛINCAST goes Neuropsychiatry (yes, I’m biased)! All the questions you may have around Impulse Control Disorders and its potentially devastating consequences.

You can be a Cardiologist and have hypertension, but can you be a Psychiatrist and a patient? Can you be open about it? Is there still Stigma around mental health? Thought we solved that ages ago...no? Dr Ahmed Hankir discusses being a Psychiatrist with lived experience in this weeks episode. 

Some are good with words. Some are good with music. Some are just as good in both! In this episode Pospo meets Mercury Prize nominee Shabaka Hutchings where they explore jazz, drugs, racism, silence and the “amnesia of technique”.