Posts tagged as:

brain imaging

Lady in Red

Image by Kopfjäger via Flickr

Make your reservation now!

School has started, the Fall is upon us, we are back at work with questions about just what to do with Impulsivity.

Impulsivity is, without doubt, the most frequent challenge in our daily lives – for mental health professionals, teachers, HR professionals, physicians, and anyone working with administrative challenges. Impulsivity works against administration, works against group order, works against progress – and can be downright embarrassing.

Want a recent example of Impulsivity? Lay your politics aside for a moment, and simply ask yourself this question – was it a productive contribution when Rep Joe Wilson shouted out “You lie!” at Obama’s Joint Session of Congress? No matter what you think of national health care take a look at this guy, and see which side you are on regarding good order.

Affect mismanagement, emotional dysregulation – loosing it - creates havoc in families, work sites and the world, locally and internationally. Someone’s impulsivity has impacted your life. Impulsivity, from anger to suicide, destroys both the self and relationships. Impulsivity is the hallmark of poor management and atypical of balanced leadership – just ask Jack Welch,  or read his book on Leadership.

Was Wilson’s outburst ‘just a quirk?’ Who knows… Was it a problem, you bet! – And no, I will not conjecture about his prefrontal cortex.

Wilson’s interruption, his inappropriate shout during a presidential speech,  is but a small example of a seriously overlooked problem we see everyday in any group setting. So often we write impulsivity off as ‘character,’ or ‘passion,’ or ‘immaturity,’ even with adults!

- Reminds me of a person in advertising who still lives by the adage “You’re only young once, but you can be immature for a lifetime.” He manages to live up to that creed, and has torn up his family in the process. There is a price for immaturity. There is, my friends, a biology for both impulsivity and immaturity.

The Impulsive Brain – Details on exactly what it is, why it is, and how to fix it.

If you live anywhere in the Norfolk, Va Beach, DC or Richmond area, [anywhere on the East Coast] and work in the context of human services you will appreciate this opportunity at Norfolk’s Old Dominion University to look more carefully at new brain and behavioral insights into the problem of Impulsivity.

  • I will be presenting 1 full day of details there on Fri Oct 16th, just around the corner in time.
  • ODU Registration has a discounted rate for groups, and a low fee for these challenging times
  • 6 hr CEU & 6 hr CME,
  • The fix will detail the latest in diagnostic evidence regarding Impulsivity, and
  • Details about the right meds and
  • The new process of actually measuring neurotransmitters to target specific interventions
  • New advances in ADHD treatment
  • New insights into Brain Injury
  • Specific interventions for Bipolar Disorder
  • The Biologic Contributions to Addiction Recovery.
  • Without getting away from bottom line street applications.

If you can’t use it, I won’t be dwelling on it. Translation, street language and concepts are the key to informed intervention strategies.

Please forward this to your colleagues and friends and let’s make a day of it.

cp

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—>Tweet this post below! For ADHD Medications: Download complimentary white paper Precise Solutions now, – and get ready for the complete version of ‘The Patient’s Guide’ details to follow. Get Neurotransmitter Details Here

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ADHD Medications: More Than ‘Going Fishing’

by Dr Charles Parker on June 21, 2009 · 4 comments

Anything

Anything

Metaphoric ‘psych’ fishing report from out on the Santa Monica Pier: -

Out in Cally last weekend, I asked this affable angler a basic fishing question: What are you fishing for? His answer: “Anything that bites…”

Sounds like typical fishing, – but it isn’t my way, and I hope isn’t yours.
No, his objective, today and everyday, is not targeted precision. It’s ANYTHING…

Medical science makes the new office/fishing wisdom simple: with neurotransmitter biomarker testing, we can match the hatch [they biting on Mayflies?]. We still need that careful clinical interview, just as we do with SPECT brain imaging– but with this kind of less costly evidence [most insurances cover it], we can see where the excess and the deficits exist. No longer will our conversations focus only upon serotonin, dopamine and norepinephrine… but twelve neurotransmitters, many you haven’t yet heard about.

Background on all this fishing stuff
Yes, I do love to fly fish, from the Madison River in MT for rainbow trout, to bonefish, to stripers in saltwater, right here in Va. Beach. I tie my own flies, have written an article for Fly Fishing in Saltwaters, and, don’t tell anyone, have saved road kill [great fly tying materials – the Boy Scout way] – and if I had some more time, I would be out there in my kayak chasing those stripers.

But now I’m fishing for a different, more challenging fish: ideas that work for people – with no risk, using the best technology, at the best cost point.

So… how does fishing relate to brains and psych? Very simple – fly-fishing is about understanding the details of the natural world, seeing, then understanding what’s there in the water in front of you. If you aren’t looking and thinking, you may think your fishing – but it’s just passing time. – ‘Anything that bites will be just fine’ just doesn’t work in the context of what we now know about brain physiology and insect hatches.

Why all this fish fuss?
Just back last night from, dare I say it, a remarkable ‘fishing day’ with the NeuroScience folk talking about what I consider to be, get this, nothing less than: the future of psychiatry.  One of the presenters, Eileen Wright MD, I’ve heard on CD, but seeing her live, listening to her psychopharmacologic understanding of sleep, – beats some of the deepest pharma researchers I’ve heard – and as you know, I have been seriously listening. Sleep, ADHD, Depression and Anxiety – just what exactly are we trying to find and fix?

Stay tuned here to the CorePsychBlog – I will keep bringing you up to date on neurotransmitter measurement [and correction] specifics. I spelled out these details in several CorePsych Radio Programs, and put up some links to downloads on the psychiatric implications of neurotransmitter measurement here.

Just read this excellent paper on Neurotransmitter testing to get you started – and I will teach you how to ‘match the hatch.’

Talk soon,
cp

Reblog this post [with Zemanta]

—>Tweet this post below! For ADHD Medications: Download complimentary white paper Precise Solutions now, – and get ready for the complete version of ‘The Patient’s Guide’ details to follow. Get Neurotransmitter Details Here

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SPECT Functional Brain Imaging Is Not ‘Mind Reading’

January 6, 2009 SPECT & Brain Imaging

Let’s Take the Woo Woo out of New Brain Science Discoveries
If you are interested in the science of brain imaging on any level you will be interested in just taking a moment over at CBS 60 Minutes from this past Sunday night.

7 comments Read the full article here →

SPECT Brain: NPH-Normal Pressure Hydrocephalus

September 28, 2008 Beyond ADHD

SPECT: Single Photon Emission Computed Tomography putting the T in SPECT Brain Imaging.
The Tomographic View: The operational word for this post is Tomography… these slices make a difference for NPH: Normal Pressure Hydrocephalus – see the “TV Commercial” [showing the typical gait] at the bottom of this page and I’ll tell you a brief story about the one, the NPH one, that almost got away.

2 comments Read the full article here →

Amen, Carlat, SPECT and Psych Evidence for ADD/ADHD: Don’t look, don’t tell?

May 25, 2008 Beyond ADHD

Carlat says we shouldn’t use SPECT for diagnosis?
We shouldn’t use SPECT tools that we know work to help discover the many missed diagnoses often found under the large umbrella of ADD/ADHD? This question regarding the use of SPECT is more than a simple ADD diagnostic tool.

4 comments Read the full article here →

Amen on PBS: The Visionary Finds His Larger Audience

March 3, 2008 SPECT & Brain Imaging

Let’s face it, he has been beat up for years on these matters, and still walks out with a smile, great science and provocative true stories. He is in that phase of science wherein many are claiming it was their idea, …they figured it out at the same time.

4 comments Read the full article here →

Psychiatric Diagnosis: Brain Function Changes our Perspectives

February 18, 2008 Beyond ADHD

When I began training in psychiatry, almost 40 years ago, much of the diagnostic psychiatric world evolved from affect thinking: depression and anxiety, euphoria, and misperceptions of reality. In a word, we began with a Freudian, affect driven, trauma driven set of patterns.

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SPECT Imaging Notes: More On “Celiac Brain” Hypofunction

January 29, 2008 Beyond ADHD

Brain changes do appear on SPECT imaging with immune dysfunction: think gluten sensitivity and celiac. Seeing real pathological evidence, bottom to top, does help with believing.

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Every Brain in Any Recovery: Another Reportable Oversight

January 19, 2008 Beyond ADHD

Everyone here at CorePsych knows that brain function is often overlooked – and nowhere is it more frequently overlooked than in the recovery process – not just recovery from drugs and alcohol, but from any addictive, compulsive, repetitive process, from food to sex.

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Conversations with the Masters: Dr Joe Dispenza

July 29, 2007 Brain/Body Evidence

Met a delightful new colleague out there, Dr Joe Dispenza whom you all should know, and can know, through his film work and his books. Joe was one of the most often quoted clinicians in “What the Bleep Do We Know?”

2 comments Read the full article here →