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The Corpus Callosum is an occasional journal of armchair musings, by a suburban, reality-based, slightly-left-of-center guy, who reserves the right to be highly irregular at times. Topics: social commentary, neuroscience, politics, science news. Mission: to develop connections between hard science and social science, using linear thinking and intuition; and to explore the relative merits of spontaneity vs. strategy.
Corpus Callosum is written by a psychiatrist at a small community hospital somewhere in the USA. Email to cc.scienceblogger at gmail dot com.
Category: Antidepressants
There is a thought-provoking editorial in the openly-accessible Journal of Psychiatry of Neuroscience (JPN): Has the time come for clinical trials on the antidepressant effect of vitamin D? (45 KB PDF). In it, the editor of the the Journal, Simon...
Posted by Joseph j7uy5 at 9:28 AM • 8 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Antidepressants
I haven't gotten back to the "selection of antidepressants" series. Mostly that is because, alphabetically, the next one is supposed to be citalopram. While citalopram (Celexa™) is a perfectly fine antidepressant, it is kind of boring. So to spice...
Posted by Joseph j7uy5 at 9:07 AM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Antidepressants
This is another post in a series detailing the selection of antidepressant medication. Use the "Antidepressants" link in the "Categories" part of the sidebar to find the other posts in the series. In this post, I am sort of assuming...
Posted by Joseph j7uy5 at 1:41 PM • 18 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Antidepressants
This is an interesting drug. Rarely prescribed, but interesting. It is older than what we typically give today. It is an antidepressant with a twist. In order to understand why it is interesting, you need to know a little...
Posted by Joseph j7uy5 at 6:53 PM • 6 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Antidepressants
This post is about amitriptyline, one of the oldest antidepressants on the market in the USA. It also used to be the most widely-prescribed antidepressant. I've decided to not attempt an encyclopedic style of description of the pharmacological action of the...
Posted by Joseph j7uy5 at 9:17 PM • 3 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Antidepressants
A while back I started a series about the science and logic (and other factors) involved in the selection of antidepressant medication. I suppose I could put in the pinks to the first four parts, but anyone can use...
Posted by Joseph j7uy5 at 10:48 PM • 3 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Psychiatry
Joltvolta (great name, by the way), asked a good question after I posted part 3. When you say proceed methodically, employ good data collection, etc. How does the individual do that for themselves? If they don't have the availability to...
Posted by Joseph j7uy5 at 8:27 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Psychiatry
It occurs to me that in order to go any farther explaining how to choose an antidepressant, I should take a moment to explain the concept of an adequate trial. Earlier, I mentioned that the patient's history of response to...
Posted by Joseph j7uy5 at 9:12 AM • 4 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Psychiatry
(Part One is here) Now we get to the heart of the matter: how does one decide what antidepressant to prescribe? First, let's take a look at the factors that are considered relevant to the choice. If you understand what...
Posted by Joseph j7uy5 at 9:01 AM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Basic Concepts
Psychiatry is not a basic science. It is a medical practice that is derived from several basic sciences: psychology, pharmacology, physiology, anatomy, epidemiology, and so forth. So this is not really a basic concept, in the sense of explaining something fundamental about nature. Rather, it explains something that is fundamental in the course of psychiatric practice: the selection of antidepressant medication.
Posted by Joseph j7uy5 at 3:05 PM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
