Psychiatry and Mental Health

Host: Leslie P. Lundt, MD

Guest: Deirdre Conroy, PhD

From alcohol to nicotine to prescription opioids, most substances of abuse can create sleep disturbances that continue even into abstinence. Untreated sleep disturbance can be a significant relapse trigger. Yet, most FDA-approved hypnotics are controlled substances. How can you break the cycle of insomnia in patients with addictive disease? Dr. Deirdre Conroy, clinical assistant professor of psychiatry at the University of Michigan, joins host Dr. Leslie Lundt to review the treatment options for this population.

Host: Leslie P. Lundt, MD

Guest: Deirdre Conroy, PhD

Substance abuse and subsequent withdrawal can lead to sleep disturbances. How do you evaluate the substance abuser with sleep difficulties? Dr. Deirdre Conroy, clinical assistant professor of psychiatry at the University of Michigan, joins host Dr. Leslie Lundt to discuss the complex interaction between sleep and substance abuse.

Host: Lauren Streicher, MD

Guest: Laura Berman, PhD

How can doctors make their female patients more comfortable talking about sexual dysfunction in the clinical setting? It could be as easy as adding a question to patient intake forms or posting a sign in the waiting room. Host Dr. Lauren Streicher and guest Dr. Laura Berman, an assistant clinical professor of ob/gyn and psychiatry at the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, talk candidly about female sexual dysfunction issues and treatment options.

Host: Lauren Streicher, MD

Guest: Kim Lebowitz

Screening for depression is simple but can be life changing for a patient with heart disease. The American Heart Association is now recommending that all patients with cardiac issues be screened for depression, stress and anxiety. Dr. Kim Lebowitz joins host Dr. Lauren Streicher to discuss how doctors can recognize depression in their cardiac patients and what they can do to get them back on a healthy path both mentally and physically. The two also discuss the role of a cardiac psychologist in heart transplant patients both readying them for surgery and dealing with a new heart following their operation.

Host: Lauren Streicher, MD

Guest: Kim Lebowitz

Women are twice as likely as men to experience depression, and that statistic holds true for female cardiac patients. Linking heart disease and depression, the American Heart Association recently recommended that all cardiac patients be screened for depression. Dr. Kim Lebowitz, director and founder of the Bluhm Cardiovascular Institute at Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago, discusses with host Dr. Lauren Streicher the new field of cardiac psychology and how doctors can screen their cardiac patients for the signs and symptoms of depression.

Host: Lauren Streicher, MD

Guest: Lorie Chaiten, JD

For the past 25 years, the U.S. government has funded abstinence-only sex education in public schools. Still, 47 percent of high school students report having had sexual intercourse and 70 percent are sexually active by age 19. Lorie Chaiten, director of the Reproductive Rights Project for the Roger Baldwin Foundation of the ACLU of Illinois, talks with host Dr. Lauren Streicher about the implications for young people's sexual health when they are denied access to complete and accurate science-based information.

Host: Jennifer Shu, MD, FAAP

Guest: Young-Shin Kim, MD, PhD, MPH, MS

Roughly one-third of children in the United States are involved in bullying, either as the bully, as the victim, or on both sides of the confrontation. What interventions can be taken that recognize patterns which lead to this all-too-common part of childhood, and that also work to prevent and combat its occurrence? Further, what can physicians do to help families and their children who are affected by bullying? Dr. Young-Shin Kim, assistant professor of child and adolescent psychiatry at the Yale University School of Medicine, talks with host Dr. Jennifer Shu about gender differences in bullying, risk factors for being targeted by bullies, and more generally, how we can approach an open and honest discussion of this topic with our young patients and their families.

Host: Leslie P. Lundt, MD

Guest: Aaron Gibson, PharmD

In an ideal world, evidence-based medicine and thoughtful clinical research might guide our every treatment decision. But the body of research is sparse on combination therapy for schizophrenia. When is it logical to combine antipsychotics? Dr. Aaron Gibson, assistant professor in the college of pharmacy at the University of New Mexico, joins host Dr. Leslie Lundt to explain when a combination might be reasonable and what problems might occur.

Host: Leslie P. Lundt, MD

Guest: Eva Schernhammer, MD, DrPH

Physicians' suicide rates are often reported as higher than the general population or of other academics. Dr. Eva Schernhammer, assistant professor of medicine at the Harvard Medical School and assistant professor of epidemiology at the Harvard School of Public Health, discusses her research into physician suicide with host Dr. Leslie Lundt.

Host: Leslie P. Lundt, MD

Guest: Katharina Manassis, MD

Children with the common presentation of both anxiety disorders and ADHD require a four-pronged treatment approach. What are the mainstays of treatment? Host Dr. Leslie Lundt welcomes Dr. Katharina Manassis, associate professor in the department of psychiatry at the University of Toronto, to discuss how to treat children with both ADHD and anxiety.