UTHealth Psychiatry Blog Archives - Louis A. Faillace, MD, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences

Bipolar Depression Remains a Major Therapeutic Challenge When people think about bipolar disorder, mania often receives much of the attention. Yet for many patients, depression represents the dominant burden of the illness. People with bipolar disorder spend substantially more time... The post SAINT® TMS for Bipolar Depression: Can Personalized, Accelerated Neuromodulation Change the Brain and De…

The Gut-Brain Connection Is More Complicated Than We Thought Over the past decade, the gut microbiome has become one of the most intriguing areas of research on depression. Studies have repeatedly asked whether people with major depressive disorder (MDD) have... The post From Dysbiosis to Metabolic Vulnerability: Rethinking the Gut-Brain Connection in Depression appeared first on Louis A. Faillac…

Depression in Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s Disease: An Unmet Clinical Need Depression is among the most common and disabling complications of neurodegenerative disorders. Nearly 42% of patients with Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and 35% of those with Parkinson’s disease (PD) experience clinically... The post Depression in Neurodegenerative Disease: Why Precision Psychiatry May Transform Care appeared f…

Hope Beyond Symptom Reduction For patients living with treatment-resistant depression (TRD), the burden extends far beyond persistent sadness. Many struggle with chronic suicidal thoughts, profound functional impairment, and years of unsuccessful treatments. While several therapies—including electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) and ketamine—can... The post Can Vagus Nerve Stimulation Reduce Suicidal T…

A New Chapter in the Treatment of Depression Few areas of psychiatry have evolved as rapidly over the past decade as the treatment of treatment-resistant depression (TRD). Once limited primarily to medication switches and electroconvulsive therapy (ECT), clinicians now have... The post Psychedelic Therapies for Treatment-Resistant Depression: Are We Entering a New Era? appeared first on Louis A. …

When Precision Psychiatry Meets Electroconvulsive Therapy Precision psychiatry is often discussed in the context of biomarkers, artificial intelligence, and genomics. Yet, in daily clinical practice, we still rarely tailor psychiatric treatments based on an individual’s genetic diagnosis. A recent Lancet... The post Electroconvulsive Therapy and Precision Psychiatry: Lessons from a Rare Genetic F…

Why Do We Need a Better Way to Describe Treatment-Resistant Depression? Treatment-resistant depression (TRD) remains one of the greatest challenges in modern psychiatry. Despite decades of research and multiple proposed staging systems, clinicians still lack a universally accepted method to... The post DATAd: A Common Language for Treatment-Resistant Depression Transforming How We Communicate, Tr…

Psychedelic Medicine Continues Its Rapid Evolution The field of interventional psychiatry is undergoing one of its most transformative periods in decades. Following renewed interest in ketamine, esketamine, psilocybin, and other novel neuroplasticity-promoting therapies, another important milestone has emerged. Definium Therapeutics... The post A Single Dose of an LSD-Derived Therapy for Depressi…

Moving Beyond Depression as a Single Disease Major depressive disorder is often treated as a single condition, yet every clinician recognizes that no two patients experience depression in the same way. Some struggle primarily with sadness, others with anxiety, insomnia,... The post Targeting Anhedonia: Can Precision Dopamine Therapy Transform the Treatment of Depression? appeared first on Louis A…

ECT Works Remarkably Well—but why? Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) remains the most effective acute treatment for severe depression, psychotic depression, catatonia, and many cases of treatment-resistant depression. Its clinical benefits can be rapid, profound, and, with appropriate continuation treatment, durable. Yet... The post How Electroconvulsive Therapy May Reset the Adult Brain: New Resea…

A New Era of Precision Neuromodulation Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) has become one of the most important noninvasive treatments for patients with treatment-resistant depression (TRD). Yet, despite remarkable technological advances, one fundamental aspect of treatment has remained largely unchanged for... The post Personalized Brain Mapping Improves Accelerated TMS Outcomes: Another Ste…

Catatonia Is More Than a Psychiatric Syndrome For over a century, catatonia has often been viewed through the lens of schizophrenia. Although this historical perspective shaped psychiatric practice for decades, modern evidence tells a different story. Today, catatonia is recognized... The post Catatonia Revisited: Toward a New Systems Model of Brain Dysfunction appeared first on Louis A. Faillace…

A New Milestone for Personalized Brain Stimulation Neuromodulation continues to evolve at an extraordinary pace. While repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) has become an established treatment for major depressive disorder, investigators have long sought ways to make brain stimulation more... The post MeRT® Receives FDA Clearance for PTSD: A New Step Toward Personalized Neuromodulati…

Are We Defining Treatment-Resistant Depression Correctly? Treatment-resistant depression (TRD) affects millions of people worldwide and represents one of the greatest challenges in modern psychiatry. Patients with TRD experience greater disability, poorer quality of life, higher healthcare utilization, and substantially increased... The post When Two Failed Antidepressants Are Not Enough: Rethink…

From Neuromodulation to Neurotechnology Over the past two decades, psychiatry has witnessed remarkable advances in neuromodulation. Treatments such as transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS), electroconvulsive therapy (ECT), vagus nerve stimulation (VNS), and deep brain stimulation (DBS) have transformed the care of... The post A New Brain–Computer Interface for Treatment-Resistant Depression: Th…

For years, clinicians have observed a fascinating phenomenon in patients receiving deep-brain stimulation (DBS) for treatment-resistant depression. While some changes occur rapidly, the full antidepressant benefits often emerge gradually over weeks or months. Why does this happen? A groundbreaking study... The post Deep Brain Stimulation May Rewire the Brain: New Evidence of White Matter Remodeli…

Can Neurosurgery Be Performed Without an Incision? For decades, the idea of psychiatric neurosurgery has been met with both hope and hesitation. While procedures targeting specific brain circuits can provide meaningful relief for individuals with severe, treatment-resistant psychiatric disorders, traditional... The post Focused Ultrasound for Psychiatric Disorders: A New Frontier in Incisionless …

Why Do Some Patients Remain Depressed Despite Multiple Treatments? One of the greatest challenges in psychiatry is treatment-resistant depression (TRD). Although many individuals with major depressive disorder respond to antidepressants, approximately one-third continue to experience significant symptoms despite multiple treatment... The post New Review Highlights the Emerging Role of the Microbi…

The Search for Faster and Better Treatments Despite the availability of antidepressant medications, many individuals with major depressive disorder fail to achieve remission. For patients with treatment-resistant depression (TRD)—typically defined as inadequate response to at least two antidepressant treatments—the burden... The post New Study Suggests Inhaled GH001 May Represent a Breakthrough f…

Why We Still Don’t Fully Understand Depression Depression is one of the most common and disabling conditions worldwide—affecting approximately one in six individuals over a lifetime. Yet despite decades of research, it remains one of the most complex and heterogeneous... The post Understanding Depression in 2026: From Symptoms to Precision Psychiatry appeared first on Louis A. Faillace, MD, Depar…