PsyDactic

Odcinki

• Neuroplasticity - What is it? 04.06.2026 33min

  Neuroplasticity is a real thing that is shrouded in mythology and used by companies to market products, but what do we actually know about neuroplasticity? Please leave feedback at https://www.psydactic.com or send any comments to feedback@psydactic.com. References and readings (when available) are posted at the end of each episode transcript, located at psydactic.buzzsprout.com. All opinions expressed in this podcast are exclusively those of the person speaking and should not be confu...
• Psychoanalysis, Active Inference, Artificial Intelligence, and Human Development with Dr. Grant Brenner 08.05.2026 1godz 29min

  Dr. Grant Brenner joins Dr. O'Leary to explore the fascinating intersection of human psychology, physics, psychotherapy and artificial intelligence. We discuss Active Inference and The Free Energy Principle along side how babies develop a sense of self and so much more. Please leave feedback at https://www.psydactic.com or send any comments to feedback@psydactic.com. References and readings (when available) are posted at the end of each episode transcript, located at psydactic.buzzspro...
• Dissociated Identities (aka Alters) - How are they formed? 06.03.2026 38min

  Is it possible to house multiple alternate selves within the same brain? Dr. O'Leary argues that it is not only possible, but under certain conditions it is likely to happen. Dissociative Identity Disorder is discussed not as a "shattering of the self," but instead as a failure to integrate the self during development. Dr. O'Leary explores different biologically and computationally plausible models to explain how the self might fail to integrate during the normal proce...
• Dissociation - What is it really? 03.02.2026 34min

  Dr. O'Leary explores the neuroscience of dissociation, defining it as a degenerate concept that refers to a wide range of functional disconnections within the brain rather than a single clinical entity. The discussion moves from the standard medical definitions—such as depersonalization, derealization, and amnesia—toward a broader view of dissociation as a neurobiological defense mechanism that uses sensory attenuation to manage background noise and overwhelming trauma. By examining how speci...
• Can hooking your head up to a fancy battery (tDCS) cure depression? 05.01.2026 48min

  In December 2025, the FDA authorized the Flow F100, an innovative at-home wearable headset that utilizes transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) to treat major depressive disorder. Unlike traditional pharmaceuticals that act systemically, this device targets the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex with localized electricity to modulate neuronal excitability and address the asymmetry hypothesis of depression. While the Empower study that evaluated this technology demonstrated statistic...
• Game Theory for Parents and Other Humans with Kevin Zollman 28.12.2025 1godz

  PsyDactic welcomes The Game Theorist's Guide to Parenting co-author, Kevin Zollman who discusses game theory as the science of strategic thinking. We explore how mathematical models like the Prisoner’s Dilemma and mechanism design can be used to manage family dynamics by creating win-win solutions rather than competitive, zero-sum outcomes. The conversation highlights practical techniques such as "I cut, you pick" for fairness, the importance of making credible threats that parents are actual...
• Childhood Deficit Disorder and the Atrophy of American Childhood 10.12.2025 33min

  Dr. O'Leary proposes Childhood Deficit Disorder as a way to conceptualize the rise in mental health issues among modern youth, exploring how systemic changes in culture and environment contribute. He contrasts the "free-range" parenting style prior to the 1980s, which fostered autonomy and resilience, with the modern trend of intensive, managerial parenting driven by economic anxiety and a "culture of fear" fueled by media. Dr. O'Leary explores how children's independent mobility has plummete...
• Clozapine - Beyond the Basics 04.09.2025 24min

  Dr. O'Leary explores the history of clozapine, highlighting its initial revolutionary impact as the first atypical antipsychotic, followed by a ban on its use, followed by its re-emergences as a strictly monitored medication, and then culminating in new recommendations that greatly encourage its use. The discussion details the severe side effects that led to its initial discontinuation, and then emphasizes other critical but often overlooked adverse effects, such as metabolic syndrome, ...
• Therapeutic Ultrasound with Dr. Michael Canney PhD 11.06.2025 44min

  This episode includes a fascinating interview with a researcher in ultrasound, Dr. Michael Canney who is an acoustics researcher the chief scientific officer at a French company named Carthera (https://carthera.eu/) and they make ultrasound devices that can disrupt the blood-brain barrier in order to let medicines into the brain that otherwise could only get through in very small amounts. We talk more broadly about the explosion of various applications of ultrasound beyond imaging, including...
• Pediatric Bipolar vs Disruptive Mood Dysregulation Disorder 16.05.2025 1godz 2min

  This PsyDactic podcast episode, hosted by Dr. O'Leary, delves into the complex and often controversial topic of diagnosing Pediatric Bipolar Disorder and its differentiation from other conditions, particularly Disruptive Mood Dysregulation Disorder (DMDD). Dr. O'Leary, a Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Fellow, explores the DSM-5-TR diagnostic framework, the history of Pediatric Bipolar diagnosis, the debate surrounding irritability as a diagnostic criterion, and the challenges of distinguishi...
• Gambling Disorder - Rarely Diagnosed, Highly Prevalent 27.03.2025 35min

  Gambling disorder may be the most under-diagnosed disorder in the DSM. This is an exhaustive treatment of the neurobiological, psychological, and societal aspects of gambling addiction, featuring discussions on the brain's reward system, cognitive distortions, and the impact of advertising and the design of gambling products. Please leave feedback at https://www.psydactic.com or send any comments to feedback@psydactic.com. References and readings (when available) are posted at the...
• Functional Neurological Disorder, Predictive Processing and Active Inference 20.03.2025 24min

  Functional Neurological Disorder was previously called Conversion Disorder or psychogenic neurological symptoms and is a condition in which a patient develops any number of neurological symptoms (such as loss of ability to move or seizure like episodes or inability to feel parts of their body or phantom pain) that cannot be explained by a clear lesion in the nervous system. It was called conversion disorder because it was previously thought that repressed emotions or desires had been co...
• Behaviorism Part 1 - Classical Conditioning 10.03.2025 23min

  Dr. O'Leary introduces PsyDactic - Child and Adolescent Board Study edition by sharing the first of two episodes on behaviorism, that field of psychology that took the radical stance of completely ignoring the fact that we have a mind. Please leave feedback at https://www.psydactic.com or send any comments to feedback@psydactic.com. References and readings (when available) are posted at the end of each episode transcript, located at psydactic.buzzsprout.com. All opinions expressed in t...
• Nicotinic Receptors, Anxiety, and PTSD - an A.I. generated discussion 23.02.2025 15min

  -- Dr. O'Leary explores how an artificial intelligence tool summarizes recent data on the use of nicotinic receptor modulators for the treatment of anxiety and PTSD. Please send any comments to feedback@psydactic.com. Please leave feedback at https://www.psydactic.com or send any comments to feedback@psydactic.com. References and readings (when available) are posted at the end of each episode transcript, located at psydactic.buzzsprout.com. All opinions expressed in this podcas...
• An extraordinary perspective on Suicide Risk Assessments from Dr. Tyler Black via Psychiatry Boot Camp 30.01.2025 1godz 47min

  "People are 14 times more likely to die during a hospital stay than outside of hospital for inpatient psychiatry." In the last episode, I shared an episode of Psychiatry Boot Camp, which is a podcast created by Dr. Mark Mullen to help medical students and junior residents hone their psychiatric skills. Mark interviews some of the most competent and amazing psychiatrists our country has to offer. I am excited that Mark let me share his interview with Dr. Tyler Black, who talk...
• Dr. Mark Mullen interviews Dr. Awais Aftab and Dr. Allen Frances on Psychiatry Boot Camp 09.01.2025 1godz 9min

  In the last episode, Dr. O'Leary interviewed the creator and host of the Psychiatry Bootcamp Podcast, Dr. Mark Mullen, who is currently a psychiatry clerkship director at St. Louis University School of Medicine. He created this podcast after discovering a dearth of resources available for medical students and junior psychiatry residents to prepare them for their transition to practice. He graciously allowed PsyDactic to include a couple of his episodes in this feed as a way to spr...
• Meet the Psychiatry Bootcamp Podcast brought to you by Dr. Mark Mullen 09.01.2025 26min

  Dr. O'Leary is excited to introduce you to Psychiatry Boot Camp (PBC), a podcast created by Dr. Mark Mullen during his psychiatry residency to help prepare medical students for psychiatry residency. It covers fundamental topics in psychiatry and inspires young psychiatrists to think critically about their approach to the field. The curriculum is based on published literature on psychiatry crash courses and boot camps, and features interviews with experts in the field. Some specif...
• In a Word - Agonist 27.12.2024 24min

  --In today's episode, Dr. O'Leary explores agonists, inverse agonists, partial agonists, and antagonists. These terms describe how molecules bind to receptors and either increase, decrease, or prevent changes in receptor signaling. Agonists increase receptor activity, with full agonists like dopamine and serotonin raising activity to its maximum. Partial agonists can increase activity in the absence of full agonists but decrease it in their presence. Inverse agonists reduce the baseline activ...
• In a Word - Transference (with a dash of neuroscience) 17.08.2024 30min

  --Dr. O'Leary discusses the term Transference, and if you listen until the end, he relates it to some computational neuroscience. Transference is a historically loaded term. Transference is supposed to be an unconscious process, so it can not really be observed, only inferred, so this means that both the definition of transference and any instance of it in psychotherapy is dependent upon the therapist’s model and their particular way of interpreting that model. But what exa...
• Catatonia in Autism and Neuroatypical Patients - Easy to miss, Harder to Treat 10.08.2024 35min

  -- More recently I have faced the diagnostic conundrum of catatonia in autism, and that is what I want to explore in more excruciating detail today. There is surprisingly little literature on the subject, and that is concerning because being able to identify and treat catatonia can be life-saving, not to mention life-altering for patients and their caretakers. Misidentifying catatonia as mere aggression or highly limited interests in autism can result in exactly the wrong m...