We Diagnose and Treat

Attention Deficit Disorder, Anxiety Disorders, Mood Disorders, Sleep disorders, Psychotic Disorders and more. We offer medication, therapy, psychological testing and TMS.

Attention Deficit Disorders

What is ADD/ADHD?

Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a condition that affects patients’ behavior. Patients with ADHD can seem restless, may have trouble concentrating and may act on impulse . Symptoms of ADHD tend to be noticed at an early age and may become more noticeable when a child’s circumstances change, such as when they start school. Most cases are diagnosed when children are 6 to 12 years old but it can also be diagnosed in adulthood with advanced testing.. The symptoms of ADHD usually improve with age, but many adults who were diagnosed with the condition at a young age continue to experience problems. Patients with ADHD may also have additional problems, such as sleep and anxiety disorders.

Anxiety disorders:

What is Generalized Anxiety Disorder?

Most patients feel anxious and worried from time to time, especially when faced with stressful situations like taking an exam, speaking in public, playing competitive sport or going for a job interview. This sort of anxiety can make you feel alert and focused, helping you get things done faster or perform at your best.

Patients with GAD, however, feel anxious and worried most of the time, not just in specific stressful situations, and these worries are intense, persistent and interfere with their normal lives. Their worries relate to several aspects of everyday life, including work, health, family and/or financial issues, rather than just one issue. Even minor things such as household chores or being late for an appointment can become the focus of anxiety, leading to uncontrollable worries and a feeling that something terrible will happen.

What is Panic Disorder?

Panic disorder is the term used to describe when panic attacks are recurrent and disabling. Panic disorder can be characterized by:

Worrying for at least a month after having a panic attack that you will have another one.
Worrying about the implications or consequences of a panic attack (such as thinking that the panic attack is a sign of an undiagnosed medical problem). For example, some patients have repeated medical tests due to these worries and, despite reassurance, still, have fears of being unwell.
Significant changes in behavior that relate to the panic attacks (such as avoiding activities like exercise because it increases the heart rate).

During a panic attack, you’re suddenly overwhelmed by the physical sensations described above. Panic attacks reach a peak within about 10 minutes and usually last for up to half an hour, leaving you feeling tired or exhausted. They can occur several times a day or may happen only once every few years. They can even occur while patients are asleep, waking them up during the attack. Many patients experience a panic attack once or twice in their lives; this is common and is not panic disorder.

What is Social Anxiety Disorder?

It’s perfectly normal to feel nervous in social situations where we might come under the attention of others, whether they’re strangers or patients we know. Attending a formal function, giving a speech at a wedding, doing a presentation to work colleagues are likely to cause nervousness and anxiety, both in the lead-up and during the event.

However, for patients with social phobia (sometimes known as a social anxiety disorder), performing in front of others and social situations can lead to intense anxiety. They may fear being judged, criticized, laughed at or humiliated in front of others, even in the most ordinary, everyday situations. For example, the prospect of eating in front of others at a restaurant can be daunting for some patients with social phobia.

Social phobia may occur in the lead up to or during in:

- The presence of recurring and unexpected (‘out of the blue’) panic attacks.
- Situations involving social interaction (such as having a meal with friends, or making small talk).

Social phobia can also be specific; where patients fear a specific situation or a few situations related to a specific fear (such as being assertive at work or with their friends).

What is Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD)?

Anxious thoughts can influence our behavior, which is helpful at times. For example, thinking ‘I may have left the oven on’ leads to you checking the oven and keeping things safe.

However, if that thought becomes obsessive (recurring), it can influence unhealthy patterns of behavior that can cause difficulties in daily functioning. Obsessively thinking ‘I’ve left the oven on’ can lead to repeated checking.

For someone with the anxiety disorder known as obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), obsessions or compulsions (acts performed to alleviate the distress or neutralize the thought), or both, are present.

Patients with OCD often feel intense shame about their need to carry out these compulsions. These feelings of shame can exacerbate the problem and the shame, and consequent secrecy associated with OCD can lead to a delay in diagnosis and treatment. It can also result in social disability, such as children failing to attend school or adults becoming housebound.

What is PTSD?

Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a particular set of reactions that can develop in patients who have been through a traumatic event which threatened their life or safety, or that of others around them. This could be a car or other serious accident, physical or sexual assault, war or torture, or disasters such as bushfires or floods. As a result, the patient experiences feelings of intense fear, helplessness or horror.

Patients with PTSD often experience feelings of panic or extreme fear, similar to the fear they felt during the traumatic event. A patient with PTSD experiences four main types of difficulties.

Re-living the traumatic event – The patient relives the event through unwanted and recurring memories, often in the form of vivid images and nightmares. There may be intense emotional or physical reactions, such as sweating, heart palpitations or panic when reminded of the event.
Being overly alert or wound up – The patient experiences sleeping difficulties, irritability and lack of concentration, becoming easily startled and constantly on the lookout for signs of danger.
Avoiding reminders of the event – The patient deliberately avoids activities, places, patients, thoughts or feelings associated with the event because they bring back painful memories.
Feeling emotionally numb – The patient loses interest in day-to-day activities, feels cut off and detached from friends and family, or feels emotionally flat and numb.

It’s not unusual for patients with PTSD to experience other mental health problems at the same time. These may have developed directly in response to the traumatic event or have followed the PTSD. These additional problems, most commonly depression, anxiety, and alcohol or drug use, are more likely to occur if PTSD has persisted for a long time.

Mood disorders

What is Major Depressive Disorder?

Major depression is sometimes called major depressive disorder, clinical depression, unipolar depression or simply ‘depression’. It involves low mood and/or loss of interest and pleasure in usual activities. The symptoms are experienced most days and last for at least two weeks. Symptoms of depression interfere with all areas of a patient’s life, including work and social relationships. Depression can be described as mild, moderate or severe; melancholic or psychotic (see below).

What is Melancholia?

This is the term used to describe a severe form of depression where many of the physical symptoms of depression are present. One of the major changes is that the patient starts to move more slowly. They’re also more likely to have a depressed mood that is characterized by complete loss of pleasure in everything, or almost everything.

What is Psychotic Depression?

Sometimes patients with a depressive disorder can lose touch with reality and experience psychosis. This can involve hallucinations (seeing or hearing things that aren’t there) or delusions (false beliefs that aren’t shared by others), such as believing they are bad or evil, or that they’re being watched or followed. They can also be paranoid, feeling as though everyone is against them or that they are the cause of illness or bad events occurring around them.

What is Postpartum Depression?

Women are at an increased risk of depression during pregnancy (known as the antenatal or prenatal period) and in the year following childbirth (known as the postnatal period). You may also come across the term ‘perinatal’, which describes the period covered by pregnancy and the first year after the baby’s birth.

The causes of depression at this time can be complex and are often the result of a combination of factors. In the days immediately following birth, many women experience the baby blues which is a common condition related to hormonal changes and affects up to 80 percent of women. The ‘baby blues’, or general stress adjusting to pregnancy and/or a new baby, are common experiences but are different from depression. Depression is longer lasting and can affect not only the mother but her relationship with her baby, the child’s development, the mother’s relationship with her partner and with other members of the family.

Almost 10 percent of women will experience depression during pregnancy. This increases to 16 percent in the first three months after having a baby.

What is Bipolar disorder?

Bipolar disorder used to be known as ‘manic depression’ because of the patient experiences periods of depression and periods of mania, with periods of normal mood in between.

Mania is like the opposite of depression and can vary in intensity – symptoms include feeling great, having lots of energy, having racing thoughts and little need for sleep, talking quickly, having difficulty focusing on tasks, and feeling frustrated and irritable. This is not just a fleeting experience. Sometimes the patient loses touch with reality and has episodes of psychosis. Experiencing psychosis involves hallucinations (seeing or hearing something that is not there) or having delusions (e.g. the patient believes he or she has superpowers).

Bipolar disorder seems to be most closely linked to family history. Stress and conflict can trigger episodes for patients with this condition and it’s not uncommon for bipolar disorder to be misdiagnosed as depression, alcohol or drug abuse, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) or schizophrenia.

Diagnosis depends on the patient having had an episode of mania and unless observed, this can be hard to pick. It is not uncommon for patients to go for years before receiving an accurate diagnosis of bipolar disorder. If you’re experiencing highs and lows, it’s helpful to make this clear to your doctor or treating health professional. Bipolar disorder affects approximately 2 percent of the population.

What is Dysthymic disorder?

The symptoms of dysthymia are similar to those of major depression but are less severe. However, in the case of dysthymia, symptoms last longer. A patient has to have this milder depression for more than two years to be diagnosed with dysthymia.

What is Seasonal affective disorder (SAD)?

SAD is a mood disorder that has a seasonal pattern. The cause of the disorder is unclear, but it’s thought to be related to the variation in light exposure in different seasons. It’s characterized by mood disturbances (either period of depression or mania) that begin and end in a particular season. Depression which starts in winter and subsides when the season ends is the most common. It’s usually diagnosed after the patient has had the same symptoms during winter for a couple of years. Patients with SAD depression are more likely to experience a lack of energy, sleep too much, overeat, gain weight and crave for carbohydrates.

Psychotic Disorders

What is Schizophrenia?

Schizophrenia is a chronic and severe mental disorder that affects how a patient thinks, feels, and behaves. Patients with schizophrenia may seem like they have lost touch with reality. Although schizophrenia is not as common as other mental disorders, the symptoms can be very disabling. Symptoms of schizophrenia usually start between ages 16 and 30. In rare cases, children have schizophrenia too.

What is Schizoaffective Disorder?

Schizoaffective disorder is a chronic mental health condition characterized primarily by symptoms of schizophrenia, such as hallucinations or delusions, and symptoms of a mood disorder, such as mania and depression. Many patients with schizoaffective disorder are often incorrectly diagnosed at first with bipolar disorder or schizophrenia because it shares symptoms of multiple mental health conditions.

Schizoaffective disorder is seen in about 0.3% of the population. Men and women experience schizoaffective disorder at the same rate, but men often develop the illness at an earlier age. Schizoaffective disorder can be managed effectively with medication and therapy. Co-occurring substance use disorders are a serious risk and require integrated treatment. The symptoms of schizoaffective disorder can be severe and need to be monitored closely.