Renegade Psych

Hey folks, I'm trying something different by posting my full audio episodes on all non-YouTube platforms monthly instead of weekly. You can still see the video with graphics on my YouTube channel, which will separate each full-length interview into appropriately titled segments for more concise viewing. This month, I'm talking again with James Greenblatt, MD and psychiatrist who specializes in an integrative (or functional) approach to psychiatry. Dr. Greenblatt is openly critical of the current shotgun-treatment-approach to mental health, throwing medications and other treatments at conditions without first obtaining more information to decipher potential root causes of things like...

Hey folks, I'm trying something different by posting my full audio episodes on all non-YouTube platforms monthly instead of weekly.  This conversation is with Antonio Nardi, MD, and we discuss the immoral and aggressive marketing of SSRIs, overpromised in terms of efficacy and safety profiles, which led to the near-dissolution of use of the MAOI class of antidepressants, which are significantly more effective than SSRIs in treating depression.  We also talk about the underutilization of lithium, and how to appropriately use benzodiazepines in clinical practice and find the balance between creating dependence/withdrawal cycles AND using them when they're in...

Join me as I read a monologue by a 3rd-year DO student (Pikeville, KY), Elizabeth Lukens, about ways to secure unbiased and unattached funding in order to remove financially motivated entities from designing studies and interpreting data sets in a way that is biased towards their ultimate financial profitability goals.  In Elizabeth's mind, there are better ways to independently decipher the truth by promoting evaluators disconnected from potential bias to explain how the data and methodology should be interpreted.

Pop on over to our YouTube channel and subscribe and join for membership if you're interested.  And, if yo...

Join me and Jon Berner, MD/psychiatrist and PhD, about the broken US healthcare system, the abysmal state of affairs in treating and diagnosing mental health, and, of course, lithium.  If you're looking for a polished conversation high on professionalism, keep looking.  If you're looking for an unfiltered, in-your-face appraisal of the disastrous consequences of poor psychiatric management, then you're in the right place.  Enjoy this multi-part series, and if you're a provider, don't fall victim to the FANTASIES OF UNDERSTANDING REALITY and for God's (or Allah's, or Buddha's, or the Flying Spaghetti Monster's) sake, USE MORE LITHIUM, though IT...

Join me and Jon Berner, MD/psychiatrist and PhD, about the broken US healthcare system, the abysmal state of affairs in treating and diagnosing mental health, and, of course, lithium.  If you're looking for a polished conversation high on professionalism, I'd keep looking.  If you're looking for an unfiltered, in-your-face appraisal of the disastrous consequences of poor psychiatric management, then you're in the right place.  Enjoy this multi-part series, and if you're a provider, don't fall victim to the FANTASIES OF UNDERSTANDING REALITY and for God's (or Allah's, or Buddha's, or the Flying Spaghetti Monster's) sake, USE MORE LITHIUM!, tho...

Join me and Jon Berner, MD/psychiatrist and PhD, about the broken US healthcare system, the abysmal state of affairs in treating and diagnosing mental health, and, of course, lithium.  If you're looking for a polished conversation high on professionalism, I'd keep looking.  If you're looking for an unfiltered, in-your-face appraisal of the disastrous consequences of poor psychiatric management, then you're in the right place.  Enjoy this multi-part series, and if you're a provider, don't fall victim to the FANTASIES OF UNDERSTANDING REALITY and for God's (or Allah's, or Buddha's, or the Flying Spaghetti Monster's) sake, USE MORE LITHIUM!

Join me and Jon Berner, MD/psychiatrist and PhD, about the broken US healthcare system, the abysmal state of affairs in treating and diagnosing mental health, and, of course, lithium.  If you're looking for a polished conversation high on professionalism, I'd keep looking.  If you're looking for an unfiltered, in-your-face appraisal of the disastrous consequences of poor psychiatric management, then you're in the right place.  Enjoy this multi-part series, and if you're a provider, don't fall victim to the FANTASIES OF UNDERSTANDING REALITY!

Pop on over to our YouTube channel and subscribe and join for membership if you...

Join me as I talk with David Healy, MD, psychiatrist, in a (now 6-part) series discussing his experiences testifying as an expert witness on the role of SSRIs in causing suicide and homicides, and other side effects of this class of medications.  In a country with more mass shootings than anywhere in the world, we've got to do a better job of investigating what the role of our medications are in causing suicide and homicide.  While SSRIs are very helpful for some people in the short term, and a few in the long-term, others have tragic side effects.  The fla...

Join me as I talk with David Healy, MD, psychiatrist, in a (now 5-part) series discussing his experiences testifying as an expert witness on the role of SSRIs in causing suicide and homicides, and other side effects of this class of medications.  In a country with more mass shootings than anywhere in the world, we've got to do a better job of investigating what the role of our medications are in causing suicide and homicide.  While SSRIs are very helpful for some people in the short term, and a few in the long-term, others have tragic side effects.  The fla...

Join me as I talk with David Healy, MD, psychiatrist, in a 4-part series discussing his experiences testifying as an expert witness on the role of SSRIs in causing suicide and homicides, and other side effects of this class of medications.  In a country with more mass shootings than anywhere in the world, we've got to do a better job of investigating what the role of our medications are in causing suicide and homicide.  While SSRIs are very helpful for some people in the short term, and a few in the long-term, others have tragic side effects.  The flat rea...

Join me as I talk with David Healy, MD, psychiatrist, in a 4-part series discussing his experiences testifying as an expert witness on the role of SSRIs in causing suicide and homicides, and other side effects of this class of medications.  In a country with more mass shootings than anywhere in the world, we've got to do a better job of investigating what the role of our medications are in causing suicide and homicide.  While SSRIs are very helpful for some people in the short term, and a few in the long-term, others have tragic side effects.  The flat rea...

Join me as I talk with David Healy, MD, psychiatrist, in a 4-part series discussing his experiences testifying as an expert witness on the role of SSRIs in causing suicide and homicides, and other side effects of this class of medications.  In a country with more mass shootings than anywhere in the world, we've got to do a better job of investigating what the role of our medications are in causing suicide and homicide.  While SSRIs are very helpful for some people in the short term, and a few in the long-term, others have tragic side effects.  The flat rea...

Join me as I talk with David Healy, MD, psychiatrist, in a 4-part series discussing his experiences testifying as an expert witness on the role of SSRIs in causing suicide and homicides.  In a country with more mass shootings than anywhere in the world, we've got to do a better job of investigating what the role of our medications are in causing suicide and homicide.  While SSRIs are very helpful for some people in the short term, and a few in the long-term, others have tragic side effects.  The flat reality is that there are not the sheer number and...

Join me as I talk about the problem of information overload in modern times. 

If you'd like to watch the video versions of my content, flip on over to YouTube where you can subscribe and become a member of Renegade Psych.  And, if you're passionate about what we do here at Renegade Psych, we're now on Patreon! If you'd like to support our work, you can! Or not... I'll continue putting out content as long as my other jobs pay the bills.  Other things you can do: liking, commenting, and sharing our posts also go a long way...

Join me as I talk to Joe Kanengiser, SW, about his personal patient experiences with MCAS, POTS, and EDS/hypermobility spectrum (/general autoimmune dysfunction), as well as his + and - reactions to Low-Dose Lithium in Part 1, then come back for Part 2 as we talk about various forms of therapy and common elements implicated as therapeutic in terms of those various therapies being effective.

If you're passionate about what we do here at Renegade Psych, we're now on Patreon! If you'd like to support our work, you can! Or not... I'll continue putting out content as long as...

Join me as I talk to Joe Kanengiser, SW, about his personal patient experiences with MCAS, POTS, and EDS/hypermobility spectrum (/general autoimmune dysfunction), as well as his + and - reactions to Low-Dose Lithium in Part 1, then come back for Part 2 as we talk about various forms of therapy and common elements implicated as therapeutic in terms of those various therapies being effective.

If you're passionate about what we do here at Renegade Psych, we're now on Patreon! If you'd like to support our work, you can! Or not... I'll continue putting out content as long as...

Join us for Part 2 of my conversation with Kat Cederberg (Power of One LLC), a Psych-K facilitator who discusses her experience as a patient coming off a polypharmacy of psychiatric medications and how deepening her understanding of her own subconscious beliefs and the power of conscious belief allowed her to wean off of medications and dive into a completely novel area of work in her current facilitating role.

If you're passionate about what we do here at Renegade Psych, we're now on Patreon! If you'd like to support our work, you can! Or not... I'll continue putting...

Join us for Part 1 of my conversation with Kat Cederberg (Power of One LLC), a Psych-K facilitator who discusses her experience as a patient coming off a polypharmacy of psychiatric medications and how deepening her understanding of her own subconscious beliefs and the power of conscious belief allowed her to wean off of medications and dive into a completely novel area of work in her current facilitating role.

If you're passionate about what we do here at Renegade Psych, we're now on Patreon! If you'd like to support our work, you can! Or not... I'll continue putting...

Join Renegade Psych as Roman Wyden (ADHD is Over podcast and book) and I delve into Part 3 of the topic of ADHD in America, where we utilize 100x more ADHD medications than the rest of the world's combined average, and the vast majority of the world's overall amphetamine stimulant usage. Roman is motivated by personal experience and found himself at a crossroads when his 7-year old's teacher and principal advised Roman and his then-wife that their child would need to be treated for ADHD in order to remain in the school due to behavioral problems. This just didn't sit...

Join Renegade Psych as Roman Wyden (ADHD is Over podcast and book) delve into the topic of ADHD in America, where we utilize 100x more ADHD medications than the rest of the world's combined average, and the vast majority of the world's overall amphetamine stimulant usage. Roman is motivated by personal experience and found himself at a crossroads when his 7-year old's teacher and principal advised Roman and his then-wife that their child would need to be treated for ADHD in order to remain in the school due to behavioral problems. This just didn't sit right with Roman and...

Join Renegade Psych as Roman Wyden (ADHD is Over podcast and book) delve into the topic of ADHD in America, where we utilize 100x more medications than the rest of the world combined in treating ADHD. Roman found himself at a crossroads when his 7-year olds teacher and principal advised his child would need to be treated for ADHD in order to remain in the school due to behavioral problems. This just didn't sit right with Roman and it launched him onto his latest mission of understanding ADHD and appropriate treatments for it aside from just prescribing stimulants or...

Join Connor (YouTube editor) and I as he asks me to answer Reddit's mental health questions.

If you're passionate about what we do here at Renegade Psych, we're now on Patreon! If you'd like to support our work, you can! Or not... I'll continue putting out content as long as my other jobs pay the bills.  Other things you can do: liking, commenting, and sharing our posts also go a long way! https://patreon.com/RenegadePsych.

Thanks for listening to the audio podcast... You should check out our posted video podcast on YouTube (https://www.yo...

Join us as I break down the Tylenol assocation with Autism research that's been a hot topic in the news lately.  Don't fall victim to the unilateral takes presented in the media.  The research is important, but also does not come close to proving a causation between Tylenol use during pregnancy and the later development of autism.  Come appreciate the nuance around this conversation with Renegade Psych!

If you're passionate about what we do here at Renegade Psych, we're now on Patreon! If you'd like to support our work, you can! Or not... I'll continue putting out con...

Thanks for joining RP today for Part 2 of our conversation with Dr. Matt Bernstein, MD and psychiatrist, whose personal experience with his sons' rapid development of OCD-like symptoms and subsequent failures of traditional psychiatric treatment modalities piqued his curiosity to think outside of the box and explore the high-benefit/low-risk promise of a ketogenic diet (low carb) on mental health.  In Part 2, Dr. Bernstein delves more into his personal and professional experiences with transformative ketogenic diets.  We further discuss the harmful role of sugar and insulin resistance in the gut and brain... It's almost like our entire body is co...

Thanks for joining RP today for a conversation with Dr. Matt Bernstein, MD and psychiatrist, whose personal experience with his sons' rapid development of OCD-like symptoms and subsequent failures of traditional psychiatric treatment modalities piquing his curiosity to think outside of the box and explore the benefits of a ketogenic diet (low carb) on mental health.  His transformative experience changed the way he practices psychiatry and he emphasizes the tremendous potential benefits of ketogenesis balanced against a relatively minimal risk profile.  I really enjoyed this conversation, come back next week for PArt 2!!!

If you're passionate about what we...

Thanks for joining RP for a 2025 clinical research update on Lithium.  If you missed it, Harvard just released their findings of a new multi-phase study investigating lithium's potential use in Alzheimer's as a biomarker to predict disease before it becomes clinically obvious, and also its' potential to TREAT ALZHEIMER's (and potentially other forms of dementia as well).  With ongoing trials in Parkinson's, long COVID, post-stroke and brain injuries, and beyond, chronic and low-dose lithium use may be the future answer to optimizing brain health. We'll expand on some of the findings in next week's episode! Hope you enjoy!

Thanks for joining RP for my series interviewing David Cohen, PhD, MSW, about the state of mental healthcare in the United States today.  In Part 3, David and I argue about lithium's therapeutic window (though he does acknowledge the potential benefits of low doses) and we further discuss the broken healthcare system. While David and I agree on most issues including fundamentally that our healthcare system is broken, our conversation at times was a bit contentious back and forth due to disagreements about where we should be practicing in the space between the full-bore biologic psychiatry movement and the anti-psychiatry m...

Thanks for joining RP for my series interviewing David Cohen, PhD, MSW, about the state of mental healthcare in the United States today. In Part 2, David and I discuss the over-diagnosis of ADHD and rapid inflation of diagnosis and medication use over the last 20-30 years (the US utilizes 90+% of the world's amphetamines, and the vast majority of all pharmaceuticals treating ADHD compared to the rest of the world), as well as the invalidity of the DSM, or Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, which is notably NOT AT ALL statistical, and mongers up diagnoses that aren't unique...

Thanks for joining RP for my series interviewing David Cohen, PhD, MSW, about the state of mental healthcare in the United States today.  In Part 1, David and I discuss the use of medication assisted treatment and David points out that similar chemical substances are treated drastically different by society and government regulators depending on whether they are labeled as a pharmaceutical versus an illicit drug. While David and I agree on most issues including fundamentally that our healthcare system is broken, our conversation at times was a bit contentious back and forth due to disagreements about where we should b...

Join us for Part 2 of the conversation with PharmD and PA, Norman Curtiss.  In this episode, we wrap up with Norman's personal journey to becoming a physician's assistant after battling alcohol and Adderall addictions for the better part of a decade.  We also discuss failures in the system of mental health, both in clinical practice, as well as the educational system forcing guidelines and one-size-fits-all approaches to care down our throats.  We appreciate Norman's willingness to outline and describe his trials and tribulations in life, and how it has set him up with an even better understanding of the hea...

Join us for this conversation with PharmD and PA, Norman Curtiss, on his journey through alcohol and Adderall addictions as a pharmacist to sobriety and going back to school to pursue a new role as a prescribing Physician's Assistant, or PA.  We appreciate Norman's willingness to outline and describe his trials and tribulations in life, and how it has set him up with an even better understanding of the healthcare system and how he can best help others who are struggling, through a compassionate, thorough, and common-sense approach to care.  Join us for Part 2 of our interview with Norman Cu...

Here, I wrap up with Part 2 of my talk with Dr. Steven C. Hayes, PhD, about the embedded history of eugenics in psychiatry and psychology, way before Nazi-era Germany's Holocaust atrocities. After talking about the history of eugenics in bio-statistics and psychology/psychiatry's origins and legalized sterilization of those deemed 'feeble-minded,' in Part 2, we expand on how we must take precautions to prevent these types of atrocities to occur in a modernized way today. Steve tells us about better statistical ways of measuring individuals over time, then combining millions of individuals over billions of years-lived to create both...

Today, I talk to Dr. Steven C. Hayes, PhD, about the embedded history of eugenics in psychiatry and psychology, way before Nazi-era Germany's Holocaust atrocities.  We discuss the history of eugenics in creating and adhering to some of the fundamental tools in statistics, and how that paved the way for many of the original leaders in psychology and psychiatry (late 1800s, early 1900s) to be prominent eugenicists.  Legalizing mass sterilizations of those deemed 'feeble-minded' in the US was backed by THE SCIENCE of the early 1900s and predated Nazi Germany by a couple of decades.  While this episode is pre...

In Part 2 of my series interviewing Dr. Jill Carnahan, a functional/integrative family/internal medicine physician and breast cancer survivor, we continue in our discussion on the blending of Western medicine with holistic/functional/integrative approaches.  Jill discusses her favorite labs to obtain to further investigate the gut microbiome, with her number one choice being a comprehensive stool sample analysis to reveal multiple various causes of inflammation in the gut, which extends into our entire body (and don't worry patients and providers, the sample is sent directly to the lab with results then sent to the provider).  We further di...

In this series, I interview Dr. Jill Carnahan, a functional/integrative family/internal medicine physician with an incredible medical origin story. During medical school, Jill was diagnosed with an aggressive form of breast cancer, and fought through treatment while continuing her medical school journey. Treatment was effective, but led to severe side effects/consequences in the form of Crohn's Disease, a type of inflammatory bowel disease that causes digestive tract inflammation and sometimes requiring major abdominal surgery to resect diseased parts of the bowel. Through all of this, Dr. Carnahan persevered, and used her experiences to improve her knowledge...

Thanks for joining us for the first installment of my interview with Chris Aiken, MD, most notable for his position as editor-in-chief of the Carlat Psychiatry Podcast, an invaluable independent podcast providing the most up-to-date and unbiased information on which medications ACTUALLY work for which conditions. In Part 1, Dr. Aiken gives us a crash course in HOW to evaluate data and here in Part 2, he'll diver deeper into the DATA revealing why lithium is the ABSOLUTE GOLD STANDARD in bipolar treatment, and has great safety and efficacy data in MAJOR DEPRESSION, DEMENTIA (some would argue even at nutritional doses...

Thanks for joining us for the first installment of my interview with Chris Aiken, MD, most notable for his position as editor-in-chief of the Carlat Psychiatry Podcast, an invaluable independent podcast providing the most up-to-date and unbiased information on which medications ACTUALLY work for which conditions.  Dr. Aiken gives us a crash course in HOW to evaluate data and how to appreciate uncertainty in one of the most useful discussions we've had thus far on Renegade Psych.  Whether you are a trainee, young provider, or patient trying to understand the nuance and gray area of psychiatric drug effectiveness or sa...

Hope you enjoy this 3rd installment of a series on medication risk during pregnancy (and more) with Dr. Adam Urato, aka THE HAPPY WARRIOR. Dr. Urato is making his grand visual debut with Renegade Psych, though we discussed similar topics in our previous audio-only interview available on spotify and apple. In part 1, we discussed medication exposures during pregnancy, and more specifically, the data and research behind the risks of SSRIs, aka 'antidepressants,' during pregnancy. In Part 2, we discussed Dr. Urato's role in getting Makena taken off the market (though it took 20 years to do so), pharmaceutical corruption, and...

Hope you enjoy this 2nd installment of a series on medication risk during pregnancy (and more) with Dr. Adam Urato, aka THE HAPPY WARRIOR.  Dr. Urato is making his grand visual debut with Renegade Psych, though we discussed similar topics in our previous audio-only interview available on spotify and apple.  In part 1, we discussed medication exposures during pregnancy, and more specifically, the data and research behind the risks of SSRIs, aka 'antidepressants,' during pregnancy.  Here in Part 2, we discuss his role in getting Makena taken off the market though it took 20 years to do so as the company mad...

Hope you enjoy this first installment of a series on medication risk during pregnancy (and more) with Dr. Adam Urato, aka THE HAPPY WARRIOR. Dr. Urato is making his grand visual debut with Renegade Psych, though we discussed similar topics in our previous audio-only interview available on spotify and apple. In part 1, we discuss medication exposures during pregnancy, and more specifically, the data and research behind the risks of SSRIs, aka 'antidepressants,' during pregnancy. Dr. Urato's catchphrase is that CHEMICALS HAVE CONSEQUENCES (and medications are chemicals). He outlines how the serotonin system is extremely important for fetal brain...