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What is Psychotic Depression?

First, we’ll define what psychosis is.  Psychosis manifests mainly in two ways—hallucinations and delusions.  When someone is having a hallucination, they may experience false stimuli that affects any or all of the senses, but audio hallucinations are particularly common.  Hallucinations can be complex, compelling, and are often indistinguishable from reality to the sufferer.

A delusion is a thought pattern or belief held by a person that does not mesh with reality.  Delusions that accompany depression with psychosis tend to take a negative turn, such as the belief that

What Are Steroids?

A steroid is a type of hormone, and there are three different types of steroids.

Anabolic steroids. Testosterone is an anabolic steroid and is connected to muscle development, hair growth, and sexual development.
Minerocorticosteroids such as vasopressin help regulate the body’s sodium and water balance.
Gluticocorticosteroids like prednisone act as anti-inflammatories to help with ailments like asthma and swelling.

Possible Steroid Side Effects

An unfortunate aspect of medicine is that sometimes the medications we use to treat some problems end up introducing or exacerbating others.  Some patients taking steroid medications experience:

Anxiety and fearfulness.
Mania—unusually

General Physicians

If you suspect you are suffering from a depressive disorder, start by seeing your general physician.  They can help you spot physical problems that may be causing or exacerbating the problem, like allergies, hormone imbalances, thyroid disorders, sleep disturbances, and more.  They are also the starting point for most treatment regimens and can offer further resources and referrals.

Therapists and Counselors

Everyday, psychotherapists help people talk through trauma, negative habits, and thought patterns.  The simple act of expressing one’s pain is incredibly cathartic.  Therapists offer a safe space to talk about

An Unseen Menace

Every year in the United States, thousands of people take their own lives.  Suicide may have taken someone in your life or hurt people you know.

Suicide is preventable, but it’s not as simple as that.  You can’t always know when someone is having suicidal thoughts.  Many sufferers don’t want anyone to know because they feel alone and ashamed.  It’s not your fault if you lose someone without knowing there was a problem, and sometimes we try to help and end up losing them anyway.  But, if there’s any

Gentle Neuromodulation

Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) is one of the ways we help people with major depressive disorder (MDD) at Rochester Holistic Psychiatry.  This treatment involves a magnetic coil that is passed over regions of the scalp over areas of the brain that govern mood, stimulus processing, and the way the brain communicates with itself.  TMS uses electromagnetic pulses to stimulate the brain’s neural activity and realign the sending and reception of neurotransmitters.  Read more about how TMS works and the regions of the brain here.

TMS is well-tolerated and involves little

What Is SAD?

Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) is a seasonal mood disorder associated with the turn of the seasons, typically beginning in fall through early spring, that affects millions across the world.  Long before the advent of modern psychology, countless cultures through time have acknowledged mood difficulties adjusting to the changing of the seasons.

Why does seasonal affective disorder exists?  We can’t point to one reason, but SAD is a reactive disorder correlated with:

Disruption to people’s circadian rhythms, resulting in sleep disturbances and feelings of disorientation.
Effects on hormones and neurotransmitters, methods

Help for Treatment-Resistant Depression

One of the psychiatric treatments we offer at RHP is TMS.  TMS is transcranial magnetic stimulation, a non-invasive procedure where a magnetic coil is passed over the scalp, particularly the frontal cortex, to stimulate the parts of the brain that help govern mood, disposition, and sensory processing.  This treatment is usually done if other methods have not produced the desired results or have ceased working like they used to.

Major medical insurance carriers currently cover TMS for major depressive disorder (MDD), but not other disorders that may or

Diagnosing MDD

For the purposes of this article, when we refer to depression, we are referring to Major Depressive Disorder, or MDD.  Major depressive disorder is a multifaceted disorder and must be diagnosed by a medical professional to receive treatment that is covered by major medical insurance carriers.  What sort of criteria do doctors and mental health professionals use to diagnose MDD?

How MDD Is Diagnosed

Medical professionals have a variety of tests to run to help them determine if a person has MDD.  More factors are considered, but these are helpful metrics

Dysthymia: An Unwelcome Guest

At Rochester Holistic Psychiatry, we help with many types of depression.  Our Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation therapy is approved by insurance carriers to treat Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) only, but what are the other types of depression?  Depression is a blanket term used to describe several disorders that can show some of the same effects and may intersect or be comorbid with another condition.

The National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) estimates that about 1.5% of adults in the United States suffer with dysthymia.  While generally not as severe

What is Neuromodulation?

How is neuromodulation used?  How does it compare to TMS?  We were glad to be asked about that recently, because neuromodulation is a fascinating topic.

In short, TMS is a type of neuromodulation therapy.  Neuromodulation is the practice of using technology to treat nerve activity, typically via electric current, magnetism, or releasing medication.  This can be delivered to the brain or other parts of the body.  Some types of neuromodulation are:

Transcranial magnetic stimulation therapy, or TMS. This is the kind of neuromodulation we use at Rochester Holistic Psychiatry.  Take