Top of Mind
Helpful articles to help you better understand mental health issues.
“Help! The sun is shining, but it is also dark!”
July 6, 2022
The sun is shining; the days are longer. Summer is approaching. For some, summer is a break from study or work. For others, it may be an opportunity to take a week of vacation to relax and rejuvenate. Whether it is a two-to-three-month break, or simply more […]Compulsive Hoarding: How to Know When Enough is Enough
June 13, 2022
By: Jennifer B. Wilcox, PsyD Staff Psychologist, OCD and Anxiety Disorders Program What is compulsive hoarding? Hoarding Disorder is a psychiatric illness and is considered to be a subtype of Obsessive-Compulsive and Related Disorders. The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders – 5th Edition (DSM-5) defines Hoarding Disorder (HD) as: Persistent difficulty discarding […]CBT VS DBT
May 20, 2022
The Difference Between CBT and DBT (Cognitive and Dialectical Behavioral Therapies) Stacey L. Spencer, Ed.D. Clinical Neuropsychologist, Lindner Center of HOPE EMDR Trained therapist Assistant Professor, Department of Psychiatry & Behavioral Neuroscience There are many, many possible types of psychotherapy. Psychotherapy is an optimal treatment method for mental illnesses. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) and […]Eating Habits: Why You Should Listen to Your Body Instead of Shame
March 25, 2022
By: Annie Ward, MSN, PMHNP-BC Psychiatric Nurse Practitioner, Lindner Center of HOPE When we think of eating disorders, our society tends to think of individuals in emaciated bodies. Disordered eating is more common than not, and does not discriminate against body size, gender or race. The line between dieting and disordered eating is blurred in […]Feeling the winter blues?
February 28, 2022
By: Jessica Kraft, APRN, PMHNP-BC Lindner Center of HOPE, Psychiatric Nurse Practitioner Seasonal affective disorder (SAD) is a type of depression that is more isolated to the changing of the seasons. It can happen in the spring and summer but occurs most commonly in the fall and winter months. We know that everyone is going […]Smarter Screen Usage for Families
January 26, 2022
By Tracy S. Cummings, MD, Associate Chief Medical Officer for Clinical Excellence and Chief of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Lindner Center of HOPE Medical school was an intense experience filled with mass information consumption regarding physiological health, followed by residency and fellowship focused on mental health care amounting to nine years of training to be […]Identifying School Struggles
December 16, 2021
Nicole Jederlinic, DO Lindner Center of HOPE Staff Psychiatrist and Medical Director for the Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Acute Unit at Lindner Center of HOPE As an inpatient and outpatient child / adolescent psychiatrist, I see children and teens, and, consequently, their families facing a wide range of mental health conditions. In the wake of the […]How Does Exercise Help Me, and How Do I Get Started When I Don’t Have The Motivation?
December 1, 2021
By: Angela Couch, RN, MSN, PMHNP-BC, Psychiatric Nurse Practitioner The research is in, and it’s clear. Exercise can help with depression, anxiety and cognitive decline, not to mention the physical benefits which we are all probably familiar with already. Physical inactivity can also be a risk factor for depression and anxiety. What are the ways […]PANS & Autoimmune Encephalitis: When Infection and Immune Dysfunction Present as Psychiatric Illness
October 25, 2021
When I started my career as a nurse practitioner in 2017, I couldn’t have guessed that I’d end up where I am today – a psychiatric provider treating children, adolescents, and adults with a largely misunderstood and relatively controversial diagnosis that causes severe neuropsychiatric symptoms due to a misdirected immune response. Pediatric Acute-Onset Neuropsychiatric Syndrome […]OCD’s 10 Biggest Tricks
September 24, 2021
OCD, or Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder, affects 1 in 40 people and is the third most common psychiatric condition. This disorder uses deceptive “OCD tricks” and lies to keep people trapped in cycles of anxiety. Here are 10 powerful tips for combatting OCD’s tricks, helping you recognize and challenge the common lies OCD tells you. 1. Spot […]A Holistic Approach: Yoga for Trauma Recovery
September 1, 2021
Understanding Trauma The sympathetic nervous system (SNS) is responsible for our “fight, flight or freeze” response and has been essential to our survival since the beginning of our existence. In the case of traumatic, threatening emotional, mental and physical experiences, this fear response can become altered. Connection between the amygdala and hypothalamus causes change to […]Caught in the weeds: The impact of cannabis on mental health
July 29, 2021
By: Christine Collins, MD, Lindner Center of HOPE Addiction Psychiatrist Legalization of cannabis is rapidly expanding across the world. To date, 17 states (and DC) in the US have legalized marijuana for all uses, and another 19 states have legalized it for medical purposes only. The media tends to portray cannabis and […]Transitioning to Young (and not quite) “Adult”hood
July 29, 2021
Jennifer L. Farley, PsyD Lindner Center of HOPE, Associate Chief of Psychological Services Congratulations! Your child graduated from high school! And now… what? Many are busy selecting their fall semester college courses and buying necessities for their dorm room. Others have chosen to delay college and work instead, using time to consider their future. Some opted […]Is our biological clock leading us to gain weight?
June 3, 2021
The role of the circadian system in obesity and disordered eating By Nicole Mori Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioner The circadian system is the body’s endogenous timekeeper, a network of hierarchically-organized structures (“clocks” or “oscillators”) in nucleated cells, which regulates a variety of biological processes (including the cell cycle, metabolism, growth, development and sleep/activity cycles) by generating outputs […]Can the COVID-19 Vaccine Improve Your Mental Health?
April 30, 2021
Thirteen months ago, the world was experiencing the onset of a shared trauma … a pandemic was sweeping over the globe. The actions that were taken to keep people safe included community shut downs, stay at home orders and mandated isolation. Lindner Center of HOPE, like mental health providers around the world, began to see […]Mental Health and the Environment of Connection
April 27, 2021
By Chris J. Tuell, EdD, LPCC-S, LICDC-CS Lindner Center of HOPE, Clinical Director of Addiction Services; Assistant Professor, Department of Psychiatry & Behavioral Neuroscience University of Cincinnati College of Medicine At the end of the Vietnam War in 1975, 1 out of 5 soldiers (20%), returning to the United States from Southeast Asia, was addicted to […]Promoting Positive Food Habits in Children
April 2, 2021
By Elizabeth Mariutto, PsyD, CEDS, Clinical Director of Eating Disorder Services “How do I encourage mindful eating for my kids?” I often have patients come in with histories of well-intended parents who promoted diets or restrictive eating in the attempts to help their kids become “healthy.” When they come to me to rewire their […]“This above all: to thine own self be true…” – Shakespeare
March 3, 2021
By Tracy Suzanne Cummings, MD Chief of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry If you have ever been a passenger on an airplane, you have heard the directive to don your own oxygen mask first before attempting to help someone else with theirs. Perhaps as February’s decorative hearts and cupids fill our visual fields, we can consider […]A Look at Binge Eating Disorder: What it is and How to Treat
February 22, 2021
Byline: Anna I. Guerdjikova, PhD, LISW Binge eating disorder (BED) is the most common eating disorder in adults. The lifetime prevalence of BED has been estimated to be 2.0% for men and 3.5% for women, higher than that of the commonly recognized eating disorders anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa. Of note, BED is found in […]Good Food for Great Mood
January 29, 2021
Nutritional Psychiatry and Wellness By Anna I. Guerdjikova, PhD, LISW, CCRC Director of Administrative Services, Harold C. Schott Foundation Eating Disorders Program The connection between health in general and the foods we consume has been known since the dawn of human kind, and Hippocrates is credited with the “Let food be thy medicine” saying. The […]