Description:
Is your mental health diagnosis helping you—or helping a billing system?

In this episode of Off Label: Data, Diagnostics, and the Future of Mental Health, Dr. Steve Rondeau takes a hard look at the ICD-10—the globally standardized classification system used to diagnose psychiatric disorders—and makes the case that it’s doing more harm than good. We explore how rigid diagnostic codes reduce complex human experiences to bureaucratic shorthand, distort treatment pathways, and often fail to predict therapeutic response.

You'll hear how diagnostic inflation, categorical oversimplification, and the clinical pressure to “label and bill” have created a system that’s more about conformity than care. From a brain-based perspective, we examine why individualized, neurobiologically informed approaches—like qEEG-guided care—offer a more ethical, precise, and person-centered alternative.

If you're a provider questioning the utility of your diagnostic toolbox, or a patient tired of being defined by a code that doesn’t capture your reality, this episode challenges the psychiatric status quo and explores what a post-diagnostic future might look like.

Description:
What if your diagnosis said more about the system than about you?

In this episode of Off Label: Data, Diagnostics, and the Future of Mental Health, Dr. Steve Rondeau challenges the static, category-based frameworks that still dominate psychiatric diagnosis. Instead, we explore the concept of mental health heterogeneity—the truth that no two people with the same label experience it the same way—and why personalized psychiatry offers a more effective and human-centered path forward.

We dig into how biological, cultural, and cognitive differences disrupt tidy diagnostic boxes, and how personalized medicine—supported by neuroimaging, EEG, and dimensional assessment tools—can help clinicians craft treatments that actually fit the individual. The episode also addresses pitfalls like overdiagnosis, misdiagnosis, and the growing demand for culturally aware, evidence-based alternatives to the DSM status quo.

Whether you're a provider, researcher, or patient tired of being reduced to a checklist, this episode explores how psychiatry can (and must) evolve—starting with the idea that mental health is as diverse as the minds that live it.

Description:
For many facing depression, therapy and medication offer a way forward. But what happens when nothing seems to work?

In this episode of Off Label: Data, Diagnostics, and the Future of Mental Health, Dr. Steve Rondeau explores how dysfunction in the brain’s Default Mode Network (DMN) may be a key driver behind Treatment-Resistant Depression (TRD). The DMN—often active during introspection and self-reflection—can become overactive, misaligned, or rigid in TRD, reinforcing rumination, hopelessness, and cognitive inflexibility.

We examine the neuroscience of the DMN, how its connectivity patterns shift in chronic depression, and why standard treatments often fail to reach the root of the problem. You'll also hear how emerging interventions—from neuroimaging-guided therapy to neurofeedback and targeted cognitive approaches—aim to regulate DMN activity and restore mental flexibility.

Whether you're a clinician, neuroscientist, or someone navigating the complex terrain of TRD, this episode offers a brain-based lens into the mechanisms behind “stuck” depression—and what it might take to break free.

Description:
Let’s be honest—too much of neurotherapy looks like performance art in a lab coat.

In this episode of Off Label: Data, Diagnostics, and the Future of Mental Health, Dr. Steve Rondeau takes direct aim at the guru culture that has hijacked parts of neurotherapy. We dig into how opinion, anecdote, and cult-like followings have often replaced scientific rigor, leaving practitioners chasing protocols passed down like sacred scrolls—regardless of the data.

Enter AI: not a mystic, not a master, but a machine trained to detect patterns, challenge bias, and—frankly—call BS on the pseudoscientific peacocking that too often defines the field. We contrast the empty buzzwords and trend-chasing cliques with real-world applications of machine learning and quantitative EEG (qEEG), showing how technology can anchor mental health care in actual evidence.

If you're tired of neurofeedback being treated like a club with secret handshakes, or if you've ever questioned the guru who says “just trust the protocol,” this episode is for you. Spoiler: the future of mental health doesn’t have a crystal ball—it has algorithms.

Description:
Two of neuroscience’s most powerful tools—fMRI and EEG—offer radically different views of the brain. But which is better for psychiatric diagnosis?

In this episode of Off Label: Data, Diagnostics, and the Future of Mental Health, we explore the evolving roles of functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) and Electroencephalography (EEG) in identifying and understanding psychiatric disorders. Drawing from cutting-edge research and computational modeling, Dr. Steve Rondeau walks us through the tradeoffs: fMRI’s detailed spatial resolution versus EEG’s high-speed insight into neural dynamics.

We discuss why the future of psychiatric care may not lie in choosing between them, but in combining their strengths—leveraging both the “where” and the “when” of brain activity to create a more biologically grounded, objective, and personalized diagnostic model.

Whether you're a clinician, researcher, or just curious about how brain imaging is shaping mental health, this episode demystifies two of psychiatry’s most powerful tools and reframes the diagnostic debate not as a rivalry—but a necessary partnership.

Description:
Electroencephalography (EEG) has come a long way—from crude early signals to cutting-edge insights into cognition, consciousness, and clinical care. But where is it headed next?

In this expansive episode of Off Label: Data, Diagnostics, and the Future of Mental Health, Dr. Steve Rondeau takes us on a tour of EEG’s evolution, from its scientific foundations to its futuristic potential. We explore how EEG technology maps the brain’s dynamic networks, informs psychiatric diagnosis, and intersects with larger philosophical and ethical questions about identity, agency, and neurotechnology’s expanding reach.

Blending neuroscience, clinical application, and speculative reflection, this episode considers the role EEG may play in reshaping our understanding of self, diagnosis, and even storytelling. Whether used in psychiatric practice, brain-computer interfaces, or explorations of consciousness, EEG sits at a critical crossroads—scientifically powerful, clinically promising, and ethically complex.

If you’re interested in the big picture of brain science—and the stories we tell with our data—this episode offers both context and curiosity for what lies ahead.

Description:
Are psychiatric diagnoses helping people—or just organizing them into boxes?

In this foundational episode of Off Label: Data, Diagnostics, and the Future of Mental Health, Dr. Steve Rondeau challenges the assumptions at the heart of modern psychiatry. Drawing from his article The Illusion of Psychiatric Diagnosis and Treatment, we take a critical look at how standardized labels like those in the DSM fail to predict treatment outcomes, often contribute to over-pathologization, and risk stigmatizing rather than supporting individuals.

With insight, skepticism, and a dose of dry humor, this episode examines why mental health care must move beyond symptom checklists toward personalized, data-informed, brain-based models that respect individual variability. We discuss the philosophical and clinical implications of treating diagnoses as identities, and why a flexible, neuroscience-grounded approach may offer a more compassionate and effective path forward.

If you’ve ever questioned the categories that define mental illness—or felt boxed in by them—this episode invites you to rethink what diagnosis should mean in the age of precision mental health.

Description:
Psilocybin therapy is generating excitement for its rapid antidepressant effects—but how can we know who it will actually help?

In this episode of Off Label: Data, Diagnostics, and the Future of Mental Health, Dr. Steve Rondeau explores the role of EEG in predicting individual responses to psilocybin therapy. We examine the emerging science behind neural oscillations, connectivity patterns, and biomarker profiles that could help clinicians identify ideal candidates and avoid unnecessary risks.

Going beyond “set and setting,” this conversation dives into the potential of personalized psychedelics, where brain data—not guesswork—guides treatment decisions. We also consider how EEG might be used to monitor therapeutic progress, predict relapse risk, and illuminate the neurobiological mechanisms of change during psychedelic experiences.

Whether you’re a clinician, researcher, or simply curious about the intersection of neuroscience and psychedelics, this episode offers a grounded, data-driven look at how technology might shape the next era of psychedelic-assisted care.

Description:
qEEG offers psychiatry a path to objective diagnostics, brain-based treatment planning, and measurable clinical insights. So… why isn’t it used everywhere?

In this episode of Off Label: Data, Diagnostics, and the Future of Mental Health, Dr. Steve Rondeau explores the promise—and the persistent resistance—surrounding quantitative EEG (qEEG) in psychiatric care. Despite decades of evidence supporting its utility, qEEG remains underutilized in clinical settings due to lingering skepticism, inconsistent training, lack of standardization, and regulatory inertia.

We unpack the history of qEEG’s scientific validation, examine what’s still missing from mainstream acceptance, and highlight what must change—academically, economically, and culturally—for brain-based tools to finally become core components of psychiatric practice.

For clinicians, researchers, or anyone frustrated by psychiatry’s slow pivot toward objective data, this episode offers a candid look at the roadblocks—and the roadmap—to closing the gap between innovation and adoption.

Description:
Is perfectionism just a personality trait—or a window into deeper neurobiological patterns?

In this episode of Off Label: Data, Diagnostics, and the Future of Mental Health, we explore how perfectionism—often admired, sometimes pathologized—intersects with psychiatric conditions like anxiety and OCD. Featuring insights from Dr. Steve Rondeau, we examine how EEG and quantitative EEG (qEEG) can illuminate brain activity linked to cognitive rigidity, hypervigilance, and compulsive tendencies.

We’ll discuss how certain EEG patterns reflect the underlying struggles behind “high-functioning” anxiety and obsessive perfectionism, and how these findings can guide more accurate diagnoses and targeted interventions. This episode also challenges the idea of perfectionism as a benign trait, raising important questions about how psychiatric frameworks categorize—and sometimes miss—the full picture.

Whether you're a clinician, researcher, or someone who's ever felt imprisoned by their own standards, this episode offers a science-based, compassionate view of how the brain shapes our striving and our suffering.