What Makes Up Your Mind

This episode of What Makes Up Your Mind continues our mini-series on AI4MH, Stanford Psychiatry’s Special Initiative of the Chair, AI for Mental Health. This time, we delve into the newest frontiers of Human-Centered AI, Computer Vision Tools, Passive Sensing. Along with the meticulous training and testing of specialized Large Language Models for better and faster diagnoses of mental illnesses, ou...

This mini-series episode of What Makes Up Your Mind looks at another aspect of AI for Mental Health (AI4MH), a Special Initiative of the Chair of Stanford’s Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences. Our guest, Dr. Shannon Wiltsey Stirman, is developing ways to utilize Large Language Models (LLMs) to enhance the delivery and availability of the latest mental health treatments for PTSD. As a...

If our home, planet earth, is in peril (and it is!), then so are we. As we experience more frequent and ferocious natural disasters, the irreversible loss of life-sustaining habitats, and a climate we’ve turned into an adversary of our very existence, an existential crisis is brewing. Along with concern for our physical security, our mental well-being is being battered in these storms…figuratively...

In medical research, Artificial Intelligence is a game-changer with its power to collect and cross-analyze masses of data and lab findings to find new discoveries. And more, its ability to be trained to unlock answers to specific medical questions offers a quantum leap in refining diagnoses and treatments. In this episode of What Makes Up Your Mind, Dr. Kilian Pohl (professor in Stanford’s Departm...

Anyone who has grappled with substance use, or loves a person with addictive behaviors, knows the wrenching relationship struggles and the often futile-feeling search for workable help. Well, this episode of WHAT MAKES UP YOUR MIND brings you hopeful developments thanks to the research and clinical work of our guest, Dr. Karen Chan Osilla, a licensed clinical psychologist and Associate Professor o...

Our conversation with this nationally recognized researcher and leader in Muslim Mental Health delves into her work of creating bridges between the science of medicine and the spiritual life of patients. Specifically, blending modern psychiatric and psychological treatments with the beliefs, customs, and rituals of Islam. Dr. Awaad’s research has renewed the recognition of the Islamic tradition of...

For neuro disorders like Autism, Attention Deficit, and Hyperactivity, causes and cures have largely remained a mystery. Yet, promising work in Stanford Psychiatry’s BRIDGE Lab is going after answers in the very nucleus of our cells, our genes, the infinitesimal carriers of information that determine the traits of all living things. Dr. Tamar Green, with help from participating families, is scanni...

In this episode in our CNI-X Mini-Series on WHAT MAKES UP YOUR MIND we meet two of the Staff Mentors who add a unique dimension to Stanford Psychiatry’s Clinical Neuroscience Immersion Experience for high school students. Throughout the two week program, these college-age mentors - usually CNI-X alums themselves - share their knowledge and experience in neuroscience, facilitate discussion, and sup...

The subject is Circadian Rhythms, and you’re going to be surprised at the influence this intricate interaction of body clocks exerts over our lives! The high school participants in Stanford Psychiatry’s two-week Clinical Neuroscience Immersion Experience (CNI-X) always are when they meet Dr. Jamie Zeitzer, Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences in the Division of Sleep Medicine. Dr. Zeitz...

Bringing high school students into the fascinating world of Brain-Mind science is what the Stanford Psychiatry Clinical Neuroscience Immersion Experience (CNI-X) is all about. Along with the science itself, better understanding the human brain – the miraculous power of it as well as the conditions that can challenge its functioning – is information that will serve participants for a lifetime. This...

Teens have no greater ally in their life challenges than Dr. Rafael Pelayo, Stanford Psychiatry Clinical Professor and Sleep Medicine Specialist at the Stanford Sleep Medicine Center. An advocate of healthy sleep for all, Dr. Pelayo is especially passionate about how we - as a society - make it nearly impossible, through school schedules and achievement pressures, for kids to get the sleep they ne...

It isn’t everyone who gets to interact and learn from world-class brain-mind scientists in a small, informal setting, but that’s the uniqueness of the Clinical Neuroscience Immersion Experience (CNI-X) for high schoolers from the Stanford Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences. One of the presenters in this two-week summer program uses the newest, cutting-edge tools to treat mental illne...

What better way to build a mentally healthy and thriving world than to offer young people access to some of the very best researchers and care providers in mental wellbeing as they prepare to transition into adulthood?  Stanford Psychiatry’s Clinical Neuroscience Immersion Experience (CNI-X) opens the minds of highschoolers to greater self-awareness, the fascinating workings of their brains,...

The leveling of the playing field between physical and mental health in the sports world may be underway in earnest, with an increasing number of high-profile athletes making their mental wellbeing a top priority and doing so in a very public way. In this discussion, we explore the unique pressures and expectations carried by elite competitors and the efforts of mental health providers to merge mi...

Much attention has rightly been given to the mental health of American children and youth since the COVID-19 pandemic upended their educational and social wellbeing. However, long before the virus hit, alarms were going off over the mental health condition of our adolescents and young adults. As you’ll hear from our guest in this episode of What Makes Up Your Mind, Stanford Psychiatry Clinical Pro...

Trauma…a physically and/or emotionally threatening event… can be an individual experience, but it can also be a collective one. As we gain some distance and perspective on the crucial year of 2020, we can better understand the critical convergence of traumatic circumstances we encountered and from which we are still struggling to recover. At the same time a deadly plague was at its height, our ver...

The power and connectivity of modern-day technology has never been more evident than during the COVID-19 pandemic. Information-sharing, distance learning, remote work, the safe procurement of goods and services, socially distanced personal connections, and telehealth…all critical lifelines provided by the internet and social media. There is no denying these positives. There is also no denying a da...

Recovery-oriented. Client-centered. Respectful, evidence-based treatments. This is Stanford’s INSPIRE Clinic, carrying out the mission of meaningful recovery individuals experiencing psychosis. The severity of symptoms on the continuum of psychosis range from intrusive thoughts and bothersome voices to hallucinations and conditions like schizophrenia. But, as INSPIRE’s co-director Dr. Jacob Ballon...

“Neurodiversity is a concept that regards individuals with differences in brain function and behavioral traits as part of normal variation in the human population.” Put another way, regardless of whether we consider ourselves to have “normal” brain function, whether we are challenged with Autism, ADHD, Dyslexia or Epilepsy, whether we have exceptional gifts in one or more areas of mental activity,...

While still considered a public health crisis, there is a bit of hopeful news in the fight against the opioid epidemic. For the first time since the crisis hit in the 1990’s, The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports overdose deaths dropped in 2018, down four percent from 2017. And yet, that lower number still accounts for more than sixty seven thousand Americans who lost their lives...

Making sure the children in our lives are healthy and thriving includes their mental wellbeing. While the natural resilience of kids is often referenced, the truth is that our youngest members of society are vulnerable to stress, anxiety and, sadly, traumatic experiences. It’s not always easy to tell, or to know how to help, so we’ve turned to Dr. Victor G. Carrion for guidance. Dr. Carrion is the...

The mortality rate of eating disorders is the highest of all psychological illnesses, but if you thought they were incurable our expert on this episode of What Makes Up Your Mind has heartening news. Dr. James Lock is Professor of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Pediatrics in the Stanford Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences. A global expert on eating disorders, Dr. Lock also direc...

Our topic on this episode of What Makes Up Your Mind takes us deep into the human brain where stimulation treatments show great promise for relieving psychiatric illnesses. Already used to treat neural conditions affecting motor skills like epilepsy and movement disorders such as Parkinson’s disease, Deep Brain Stimulation (DBS) has also been beneficial in the treatment of severe Obsessive-Compuls...

It is a very human thing to, at times, worry, ruminate, to experience self-doubt: “did I lock the door, did I give anyone this darn cold, what if ______” (fill-in the blank with any one of thousands of thoughts)? In most cases these episodes are infrequent, centered around a specific incident or situation, and our rational minds step in to interrupt the pattern and alleviate the concern. However,...

In the face of record opioid overdose deaths and cases of addiction, this episode of What Makes Up Your Mind offers hope. Our guest is Dr. Keith Humphreys, the Esther Ting Memorial Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University, an internationally recognized expert on addiction, treatment, and public policy. He was part of the Obama administration's team w...