Focus On Neurology And Psychiatry

Host: Patrice L Basanta-Henry, MD, MHSc, FACOG According to the American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, between 14% and 23% of women will struggle with some symptoms of depression during their pregnancy. This condition often goes unrecognized and untreated in part because of safety concerns in using medications or other therapeutic methods during pregnancy. Host Dr. Patrice Basanta-Henry talks with Dr. Nzinga Harrison, a board-certified physician in addiction medicine and psychiatry and Chief Medical Officer for Anka Behavioral Health, Inc about the current recommendations for depression screenings in the pregnant patient.

[Read the Article] Patients who might benefit from a heart valve replacement but are too ill for open heart surgery can sometimes undergo a less invasive procedure known as transcatheter aortic valve implantation or "TAVI". About 10% of patients undergoing TAVI can experience small strokes and related brain injury as a complication. A new study found that the use of a cerebral protection device, which captures debris dislodged from blood vessels during the TAVI procedure, reduced the number and volume of brain lesions seen on MRI. Researchers from the University of Leipzig Heart Center, Germany studied 100 patients with an average age of 80 who underwent TAVI. Half of the patients received the cerebral protection device and the other half did not. Patients underwent brain MRIs before the implantation and again at 2 and at 7 days after the procedure. The results found that using the filter device helped to decrease the number of brain lesions seen in the brain by about half. [Watch more videos of The JAMA Rep

Host: Jennifer Caudle, DO Guest: Michael Mullen, MD Every second counts for stroke patients. During a stroke, two-million brain cells die every minute, making the urgent administration of therapies and treatment vital to ensure a positive outcome. Host Dr. Jennifer Caudle is joined by Dr. Michael Mullen, Assistant Professor of Neurology at Penn Medicine. They discuss the clinical hallmarks and priority treatment consideration for stroke.

Host: Jennifer Caudle, DO Mood tracking, a novel integration of technology with psychiatric care to track mental status changes over time, has the potential to fundamentally change how clinicians treat behavioral health disorders. Will smartphone apps become the vehicle for this technology to the wider masses? Dr. Adam Kaplin, Principle Psychiatric Consultant to the Johns Hopkins Multiple Sclerosis and Transverse Myelitis Centers of Excellence, is the founder and inventor of Mood 24/7, a mobile app that allows people to record their mood daily and share this data with their health care providers to provide better accuracy in reporting mood symptoms. He joins Dr. Jennifer Caudle to discuss the emergence of mood tracking portals such as Mood 24/7 and the ways they can transform mental health care.

Host: Jennifer Caudle, DO Guest: Joseph Berger, MD, FACP, FAAN, FANA Multiple sclerosis is a notoriously difficult disease to diagnose early on. With no singular confirmatory tests yet available, physicians often become reluctant to identify MS in their patients, leading to years of diagnostic and treatment uncertainty. But new innovations are helping doctors establish earlier diagnoses and start more targeted treatments for MS patients. Dr. Jennifer Caudle welcomes Dr. Joseph Berger, Professor of Neurology at Penn Medicine, to explore some of these innovations advancing MS diagnosis and treatment.

Host: Matt Birnholz, MD Psychiatry gets a bad rep for being one of the more "technophobic" fields in clinical medicine. This negative association stems in part to the difficulty in tracking changes in mood, cognition, and certain behaviors over time. But there is a growing contingency of psychiatric clinicians who are bringing technology into this specialty to help propel standards in mental health care. Dr. Adam Kaplin, Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and Principle Psyciatric Consultant to the Johns Hopkins Multiple Sclerosis and Transverse Myelitis Centers of Excellence, joins Dr. Jennifer Caudle to discuss ways in which technological innovations can enhance psychiatric care and decrease stigma surrounding mental illness.

Host: Jennifer Caudle, DO Guest: Kathryn Davis, MD, MTR Guest: Timothy Lucas, MD, PhD According to the epilepsy foundation, epilepsy is the 4th most common neurological problem in the U.S. – only migraine, stroke and Alzheimer’s disease occur more frequently. The average incidence of epilepsy each year in the U. S is estimated at 150,000, or 48 for every 100,000 people. Host Dr. Jennifer Caudle talks with Doctors Kathryn Davis and Timothy Lucas about advances in treatment for epilepsy at Penn Medicine. Dr. Davis is Assistant Professor of Neurology and Medical Director of the Epilepsy Monitoring Unit and Epilepsy Surgical Program. Dr. Timothy Lucas is Assistant Professor of Neurosurgery, Surgical Director at the Penn Epilepsy Center, and Director of the Penn Center for Laser Neurosurgery.

Host: John J. Russell, MD After having a nationally televised panic attack, Dan Harris, co-anchor of “Nightline” and the weekend edition of “Good Morning America” on ABC News, knew he had to make some changes. Mr. Harris realized that the source of his problems was the very thing he always thought was his greatest asset: the incessant, insatiable voice in his head, which had propelled him through the ranks of a hypercompetitive business, but had also led him to make decisions that provoked his on-air panic attack. Eventually Harris stumbled upon an effective way to rein in that voice, something he always assumed to be either impossible or useless: meditation, a tool that research suggests can do everything from lower your blood pressure to essentially rewire your brain. 10% Happier, an autobiographical account of Harris's discovery of meditation, takes readers on a ride from the outer reaches of neuroscience to the inner sanctum of network news to the bizarre fringes of America’s spiritual scene, leavin

Host: Brian P. McDonough, MD, FAAFP Muhammed Ali died on June 3rd, 2016. The cause of death was respiratory complications from septic shock, but his 30-year battle with Parkinson's disease played a major role in his declining health. Did a storied career in boxing contribute to and/or cause the development of this disease? Dr. Brian McDonough previews the current clinical understandings and medical literature connecting chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) with the development of Parkinson's disease.

Host: Maurice Pickard, MD Dr. Maurice Pickard speaks with psychologist Dr. Bernard Golden, an anger management specialist and author of Overcoming Destructive Anger: Strategies That Work. Dr. Golden draws on both compassion-focused therapy―a model for change that encompasses and expands on cognitive behavioral therapy, mindfulness, and practices in compassion and self-compassion―and theories of emotional intelligence to offer concrete tools for turning destructive anger into healthy anger. This in turn can have positive health effects on a range of disease states, from cardiovascular disease to diabetes to depression. Bernard Golden, PhD has been a practicing psychologist for almost forty years. He specializes in working with children, teens and adults on anger management issues, utilizing cognitive behavioral therapy, mindfulness techniques and practices in compassion and self-compassion. Dr. Golden is the author of Overcoming Destructive Anger: Strategies That Work (John Hopkins University Press, 201

Host: Paul Rokuskie Recent studies have uncovered sex differences in both the neurobiology and phenotypical presentations of autism. These emerging understandings for how autism manifests uniquely in girls vs boys may radically change the way autism spectrum disorder is clinically perceived, improving diagnostic sensitivity and personalizing therapies. Joining host Paul Rokuskie to discuss this line of research developments in autism spectrum disorder is Dr. Kaustubh Supekar, research scientist in the Department of Psychiatry at Stanford University School of Medicine.

[Read the Article] Approximately one-third of children who experience a concussion will experience persistent post-concussion symptoms. Researchers have developed a new clinical scoring system that may help predict which patients are at a higher risk for prolonged symptoms.Canadian researchers evaluated more than 3,000 patients, ages 5 to 18, who presented within 48 hours of an acute head injury. About thirty percent ended up with persistent post-concussion symptoms at 28 days. Researchers identified nine clinical factors that were predictive of post-concussive symptoms. These factors were then used in a twelve point risk score that included items like age, sex, history of migraines or depression, prior history of concussion, and problems with balance.Although the clinical score was better than a physician's judgement alone, further research is needed before it is fully adopted into clinical practice. [Watch more videos of The JAMA Report]

Host: Brian P. McDonough, MD, FAAFP Dr. Brian McDonough welcomes John Roman, CEO of Defend Your Head, a sports safety company based in Chester County, PA. Mr. Roman is a former offensive lineman in the NFL with the New York Jets (1976-1983) before launching a 30-year successful career on Wall Street. He joins Primary Care Today to discuss technological advances in helmet design and construction for football players of all ages. His company has recently developed ProTech, a football helmet product using a soft outer-shell technology designed to improve energy and force dissipation and reduction.

[Read the Article] A new study examined the brains of deceased individuals and found that moderate seafood consumption correlated with lesser Alzheimer disease.Researchers from Rush University Medical Center in Chicago enrolled older people living in public housing and retirement communities in an ongoing study of memory and aging. Participants had normal memory function when they entered the study and were asked to keep track of their diet using a detailed questionnaire. The participants also agreed to brain donation after they died, providing researchers a total of 286 brains to examine.They found that participants who reported consuming seafood at least once a week had decreased occurrence of the plaques and tangles associated with Alzheimer disease. Increased seafood consumption was associated with increased brain mercury levels, but the mercury did not appear to have an impact on brain health. [Watch more videos of The JAMA Report]

[Read the Article] Depression is a common clinical problem, and is a leading cause of disability in adults. This condition is often under recognized and under treated, affecting individuals, families, businesses and society. The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force is an independent group of medical professionals that makes evidence-based recommendations about clinical preventive services in the primary care setting. The Task Force is recommending screening for depression in adults, including pregnant and postpartum women. [Watch more videos of The JAMA Report]

[Read the Article] Glioblastoma is the most devastating form of brain cancer in adults; most patients die within one to two years of diagnosis. A new study examined whether using tumor-treating fields, a type of electromagnetic therapy, combined with maintenance chemotherapy in patients with glioblastoma who had already completed standard chemotherapy and radiation, could increase survival.Researchers from University Hospital in Zurich, Switzerland are conducting a worldwide trial with 695 glioblastoma patients. One out of three received a standard maintenance course of chemotherapy, while the other two received maintenance therapy plus the tumor treating fields for up to two years.The current results are for the first 315 patients. Researchers found that use of the tumor-treating fields increased both progression-free survival and overall survival. Overall survival is prolonged by an average of three months in patients getting the tumor-treating fields therapy. [Watch more videos of The JAMA Report]

[Read the Article] Even in the general population, people often don't want to talk about depression, which is one of the major reasons it isn't always treated properly. Depression is also a concern in the medical community, particularly affecting physicians in training known as medical residents. A considerable number of medical residents suffer significant depressive symptoms at various times during their training. What should be done to address the problem? [Watch more videos of The JAMA Report]

Host: Jennifer Caudle, DO Host Jennifer Caudle, DO welcomes Robert Nagele, PhD, a Rowan University researcher and Professor at the Rowan University School of Osteopathic Medicine. Dr. Nagele and his team are closing in on a new blood test to detect Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, MS, cancers and other diseases by searching for the autoantibodies created by the disease processes. The test has initially shown to be remarkably accurate in research trials with a capability to accurately assess the stage of disease. More important, it appears to detect pre-clinical disease, giving physicians an opportunity to intervene with lifestyle changes that delay or defer the onset of symptoms. This program was recorded live at the American Osteopathic Association's annual medical education conference, OMED2015 in Orlando, FL,

Host: Brian P. McDonough, MD, FAAFP Dr. Brian McDonough welcomes Dr Ken Yeager, Associate Professor of Psychiatry at Ohio State University School of Medicine. Dr. Yeager examines how physicians can help their patients handle the stress of a "24-hour news world" with depictions and images of disasters coming into their homes every day.

Host: Maurice Pickard, MD A traumatic brain injury is a life-changing event, affecting an individual’s lifestyle, ability to work, relationships―even personality. In The Traumatized Brain: a Family Guide to Understanding Mood, Memory, and Behavior after Brain Injury, co-author and neuropsychiatrist Dr. Sandeep Vaishnavi explains how traumatic brain injury, whether mild, moderate, or severe, affects the brain. He describes how emotional symptoms such as depression, anxiety, mania, and apathy can be treated; how behavioral symptoms such as psychosis, aggression, impulsivity, and sleep disturbances can be addressed; and how cognitive functions like attention, memory, executive functioning, and language can be improved.