Writing · Category
Adult Psychiatry
Expert information on psychiatric conditions, evaluation processes, and integrative treatment approaches.
Brain Zaps: Why They Happen and What Actually Helps
Brain zaps are a real antidepressant withdrawal symptom. A psychiatrist explains why they happen, how long they last, and why no supplement has ever fixed them.
Zoloft Withdrawal: How Hard Sertraline Is to Stop and How to Taper Safely
Zoloft Withdrawal: What Happens When You Stop I’m a board-certified adult and forensic psychiatrist practicing in North Carolina. Sertraline is one of the most widely prescribed antidepressants in the United States, and it sits in the middle of…
Cymbalta Withdrawal: Why Duloxetine Is So Hard to Stop and How to Taper Safely
Cymbalta Withdrawal: What Happens When You Stop I’m a board-certified adult and forensic psychiatrist practicing in North Carolina. Cymbalta withdrawal is one of the harder problems in psychiatry to manage, and duloxetine belongs with venlafaxine and paroxetine among…
Is Semax Legal? What the FDA Panel Actually Voted On
Published: July 25, 2026 | By: Dr. Baghel | Category: Peptide Therapy Updated July 25, 2026. An FDA advisory committee voted on semax on July 24. Every vote tally on this page is as reported by trade press…
How MDMA-Assisted Therapy Works, and Why the FDA Said No
Two phase 3 trials reported that MDMA-assisted therapy reduced severe PTSD symptoms more than the same therapy with an inactive pill. The improvements were large, the kind that usually carries a drug through to approval. In August 2024,…
How Psilocybin Works in the Brain
Psilocybin doesn’t do much on its own. Your body converts it to psilocin, and psilocin switches on a single serotonin receptor in the cortex called 5-HT2A. Almost everything that follows starts there: the hallucinations, and the shift in…
MKUltra: The CIA’s Psychedelic Experiments and Informed Consent
Between 1953 and the early 1970s, the Central Intelligence Agency ran experiments that gave powerful drugs to people who never agreed to take them. The program was called MKUltra. Its subjects included prisoners, psychiatric patients, people who used…
The History of Psilocybin: From Ancient Ritual to the Modern Lab
The history of psilocybin is the longest and best documented of any psychedelic in medicine. That fact gets buried under a lot of vague language about ancient wisdom and sacred mushrooms. The real record is specific, and most…
GLP-1 and Alcohol: Do They Really Cut Drinking?
For some heavy drinkers, a GLP-1 quiets the drinking along with the weight. It works mostly in the ones who are also overweight, but the research on GLP-1 and alcohol is only a couple of years old. The…
The FDA Peptide Vote of July 2026: What the Evidence Shows
On July 23 and 24, 2026, an FDA advisory committee meets to weigh seven peptides that compounding pharmacies want cleared to make. The agency’s own reviewers had already recommended no, in writing, on all seven, before the vote.…