Major Fronts in Psychiatric Research

[punkedoutriffs]

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Hi folks, I'm an M1 @ a U.S. Allo school interested in psychiatry and possibly an academic career. I was wondering if you guys could point me to some resources that might educate me on the current major fronts in psychiatric research. I'm just trying to get an overview to think about what kind of research I might be interested in for the future and seeing if that can guide me on where I should shoot for for residency. Thanks.

 

[whopper]

TMS is making some advances. There's some research into pushing the area of the brain affected by the TMS a bit further to see if it yields better results. Problem is if you push too much you could induce a seizure, but there may be a magic area that allows for more than they're doing now without a seizure.

Ketamine is showing more promise as a possible viable treatment for several psychiatric disorders.

Cannabis is showing more data that is it schizophrenogenic.

MRI lie detectors are showing promise to the degree where one day they may be admissible as evidence in court. Not now but maybe later.

Research is being done to ID schizophrenia while still in the prodrome phase.

New data shows that negative symptoms of psychosis may be caused by interleukins. More data needed.

New meds to treat Alzheimers are in the works.

An EEG can now diagnose ADHD.

 

[shan564]

If you're interested in exciting new fronts in medicine, psychiatry is the place for you. Aside from TMS, here are some of the things that I think are the most exciting areas in research, depending on what kind of stuff you find interesting. I'm sure there's probably a Wikipedia article on each of these topics that can give you a brief overview.

Human Connectome Project
Anti-NMDA receptor antibody disease
Ketamine for depression
d-cycloserine to augment psychotherapy
d-cycloserine to improve cognition/insight in schizophrenia
Cognitive effects of 5HT-1A and 5HT-7 receptors, and pharmacological effects
Pharmacogenomics and/or designer medicine
Neurosteroids
Neuroimaging of sleep physiology/pathology
Optogenetics

That's just off the top of my head.

 

[punkedoutriffs]

Wow, thanks guys.

 

[nitemagi]

These are all clinical research. There's also tons of basic science research, neuroscience, and includes my favorite of psychoneuroimmunology.

 

[whopper]

There have been a few mentions by people in the field that we're reaching dead-ends, woe is us.

All fields of medicine, in science reach dead ends all the time but doors open too. I don't see why those people thinking our field hit a wall feel this way except that maybe they're getting a little too complacent/stagnant in their belief that everything can be explained using old and crude methods to gauge psychiatry.

If you think our entire field is defined by the use of SSRIs and when we've reached the point where companies don't want to research any more SSRIs because there's enough $4 ones so where's the profit,.......I think you get the point.

We've always known that dopamine doesn't fully explain psychosis, 5HT, DA, and NE are not the end-all-be all with depression, that we have a THC receptor but haven't reliably identified what role it's supposed to play in our brain (I don't mean by using cannabis, why is it there in the first place), there's dozens of chemicals in the brain we've identified but don't know what they do.....

So when I hear some doctors mention woe is us because pharm companies don't want to do much more research on SSRIs, I politely ask them why they are allowing SSRIs to define their opinion of our profession. We're psychiatrists, not brand-new $400/month SSRI salesmen.