There are many kinds of antidepressant medications, and they act through a variety of mechanisms. Because of the apparent mechanism by which the first discovered antidepressants acted, it was long […]

The underlying causes of neurodevelopmental conditions, such as Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and autism, remain to be fully discovered. Some are known. For example, genes are known to be […]

Schizophrenia is a psychiatric illness characterized by disorganized thoughts, delusions and hallucinations. Emotions are also affected. They are exaggerated in some with schizophrenia, but often as not, emotions flatten. Lack […]

Aromatherapy is the ancient practice of using aromatic essential oils of plants to treat human illnesses. The technique has been utilized in the management of a variety of illnesses and […]

Cells in the brain, called neurons, communicate with one another using chemicals referred to as  neurotransmitters. Many neurotransmitters are derived from amino acids, the building blocks of protein. Amino acids […]

The basis of the theory of evolution is that random changes in genes will be passed down to future generations if they offer some advantage to survival of the species. […]

A number of years ago, there was an incident in which the NFL star Ray Rice punched his then fiancé, Janay Palmer, in the face in an elevator. A camera […]

The cerebellum is an evolutionarily old part of the brain. It is a multilayered structure that lies beneath and behind the larger paired areas of the brain called the cerebral […]

In 1964 Norman Cousins, the well-known editor of the Saturday Review, was hospitalized with a mysterious autoimmune disease.  He suffered high fever, severe pain, and near-paralysis. Mainstream medicine offered little […]

I was in my first year of psychiatry residency, and I was very concerned about a young woman that had been admitted to the inpatient ward. She had long before […]