Christofer and psychiatrist Michael Golding speak about psychiatry in this episode of Do Explain. They discuss psychiatric diagnosis, physiology and psychology, capitalist vs. buddhist antidepressants, faulty error-correction in a mind, if psychiatry is explanationless, misconceptions about the field, effectiveness of different therapies and drugs, panic attacks, fear of dying, the importance of sleep, vagal nerve stimulation, and other related topics.

Michael Golding is a Board Certified psychiatric physician with more than 20 years of experience treating psychiatrically disordered patients in back wards of psychiatric hospitals, in prisons, and in outpatient clinics. He has also been the Chief Psychiatrist of one of the largest prison system in the country. He completed psychiatric residency training at the University of North Carolina and completed a National Institure of Mental Health Fellowhip in Psychobiology and Psychopharmacology. He is an evolutionary epistemologist and loves the ideas of Charles Darwin, Karl Popper, and David Deutsch and is currently applying them to model knowledge growth in economic systems. He is also writing a book on psychiatric differential diagnosis to help the lay person understand the relationship between general medical and psychiatric practice.

Twitter: https://twitter.com/mgoldingmd

Timestamps:

(3:12) - How does a psychiatrist diagnose a patient?

(16:45) - Is psychiatry an explanationless field?

(25:45) - Types of interference with the mind

(35:33) - What is the best kind of therapy?

(43:45) - Specific disorders and their treatments

(52:25) - Fight or flight

(59:50) - The role of sleep

Notes on discussed topics provided by Michael:

https://www.hopefordepression.org/about-us/depression-task-force/helen-s-mayberg/
Stimulation of key sections of the brain helps with depression.
Helen Mayberg

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/16254997/
Anterior Cingulate controls emotional and physical reactivity to stress.
Hugo Critchley

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25549913/
Alterations in sleep wake cycles, for example using light therapy, decreases need for sleep, improves physiology, and decreases depression.

https://www.healthyplace.com/depression/depression-treatment/vagus-nerve-stimulation-vns-for-treating-depression
Vagus Nerve Stimulation for treatment of refractory depression.

https://www.acc.org/latest-in-cardiology/ten-points-to-remember/2020/03/30/12/17/takotsubo-syndrome
Takotsubo Syndrome

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https://twitter.com/ReachChristofer