Mindful Psychiatry

03/18/2025

A new practice is forming to reach people before they get pathologized and decreed “broken” and started on medications.

11/20/2024

Honored to speak with Laurel Myers Hurst on her new podcast.

Today on the Brain Health Hook-Up, Laurel Myers Hurst is joined by Dr. Jodie Skillicorn to explore the profound impact of belonging on mental health and well-being. Jodie Skillicorn, DO, ABIHM is a holistic psychiatrist who believes strongly ...

10/27/2023

How anxiety about the planet’s future is transforming the practice of psychotherapy.

09/26/2023

08/16/2023

Despite the title's suggestion, it is not age that increases the risk of depression, but the increased prevalence of chronic health issues, sleep issues, lack of exercise, and social isolation. Fortunately, by addressing these root issues you may likely alleviate the depressive symptoms as well.

Learn why depression can develop with age, plus steps you can take to help support your mental health and emotional resilience as you get older.

05/12/2023

I was honored to have served as a juror at the Voices With Impact Film Festival, exploring the intersection of climate change, burnout, and mental health. To view the films June 26-30 register now!

03/17/2023

A new study demonstrates the power of controlled, focused breathing to improve mood and reduce anxiety. In this randomized controlled trial three forms of breathwork were compared with each other and with mindfulness meditation. Although all interventions increased daily positive affect and decreased negative affect and anxiety, the greatest improvement was found in the group that focused on shorter inhalations and longer exhalations. What is most encouraging about the study is that the results were based on only 5 minutes of daily practice over a period of a month, although the benefits of positive affect were shown to increase with more practice over time. What is unclear is if these benefits extend to those actually suffering from depression or anxiety as the participants in this study were all healthy college students. Hopefully, another study will be done to clarify the potential use in other populations.

02/28/2023

A huge umbrella review of research shows that not only is exercise effective in treating depression and anxiety, but the effect sizes are equal to or greater than conventional psychotherapy or pharmaceuticals. The data suggests that resistance exercise is most effective for depression, while mind-body exercises like yoga are best for reducing anxiety. Perhaps physicians should be handing over prescriptions for exercise before handing out medications with many side effects and withdrawal systems that make them difficult to discontinue. Maybe someday...

Objective To synthesise the evidence on the effects of physical activity on symptoms of depression, anxiety and psychological distress in adult populations. Design Umbrella review. Data sources Twelve electronic databases were searched for eligible studies published from inception to 1 January 2022....

02/06/2023

I love this article. The concept is so simple, beautiful, and effective! It demonstrates the power of connection, compassion, and purpose.

The Friendship Bench is inexpensive, easy to replicate, and effective. Could it work here?

11/11/2022

For the first time, a study directly compared mindfulness training to medication and found them to be equally effective at reducing anxiety. It's true, mindfulness training takes more time and effort, but it also offers a lifelong skill for better coping with the inevitable uncertainty, discomfort, stress, and anxiety that are an unavoidable part of living a full life. Hopefully, these results will encourage physicians to consider recommending mindfulness trainings before immediately prescribing a pill, and lead insurance companies to begin paying for these trainings, or at the very least doing research to assess the cost benefits of doing so.

This randomized clinical trial evaluates whether mindfulness-based stress reduction is noninferior to escitalopram in the treatment of anxiety disorders.