If you have just given birth or will be giving birth in future, it’s common to wonder about perinatal mental health problems, especially if you have had issues with mental health in the past. Perinatal means – during pregnancy and within a year after delivery. Around 10 to 20% of women who are pregnant or have given birth within the last year will be affected by mental health issues. If you are wondering, ‘can you develop OCD after giving birth?’ – yes, it is a possibility. A percentage of women will experience obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) across pregnancy and the postpartum. In fact, s ..read more

Anxiety is a mental and physical response to unfamiliar or stressful situations. Everyone experiences anxiety differently. Anxiety triggers (the thing that causes an anxious response) vary from person to person and they may respond to these triggers in different ways. However, there are symptoms of anxiety that may be common amongst those who suffer with it. These include physical symptoms – such as palpitations, pins and needles, restlessness and nausea – and mental symptoms – such as feeling tense, having a sense of dread, dissociating (disconnecting from the world around you) and needing to ..read more

We are delighted to announce that the Founder and Medical Director of The London Psychiatry Centre, Dr Andy Zamar, has been invited to join the World Federation of Societies of Biological Psychiatry (WFSBP) task force on Neuroprogression in Psychiatric Disorders. WFSBP is an international network of national societies and individual professionals in psychiatry spanning 70 countries. Dr Zamar has joined this prestigious international task force of the WFSBP which works to identify biomarkers in psychiatric disorders with the goal of intervening and preventing the progression of psychiatric dis ..read more

We take a look at how to calm anxiety and stress – two words that we hear quite often in today’s world, whether it is in the media or in conversations with friends, family or colleagues. On the surface, it might seem like we are in the midst of an anxiety epidemic; however, that may not necessarily be the case. One contributor to the rise in general use of the words ‘anxiety’ and ‘stress’ could be the increase in awareness surrounding mental health issues, and the resulting influx in people recognising symptoms in themselves and reporting these to a doctor. On the other hand, some evidence sug ..read more

It was reported in 2022 that, compared with the previous year, nearly half a million more adults in the UK were taking antidepressants. In addition, prescriptions of antidepressants for teenagers and children also increased during this time. The data, collected by the NHS, revealed that this is the sixth consecutive year in which there has been an increase in both patients with depression and prescribed antidepressants. What Are Antidepressants? Antidepressants are a type of drug that encourage the activity of certain neurotransmitters (the body’s ‘chemical messengers’) within the brain to hel ..read more

Postnatal anxiety and perinatal mental health problems refer to those experienced by mothers during or after pregnancy. According to the NHS, perinatal mental health problems affect up to 27% of new and expectant mums, making this a relatively common issue. Fortunately, there are resources available to help with pregnancy-related mental health issues, as well as many things that you can do at home to help yourself. Dr Agnieszka Klimowicz, Consultant Psychiatrist and perinatal specialist at The London Psychiatry Centre, explains, “Don’t be afraid to seek help if you have an existing mental heal ..read more

Trying to boost your mood in winter can seem like a difficult undertaking. As the days become shorter and the temperatures drop, it is easy to let the inevitable changes in winter impact your mood. In fact, one in three people in the UK experience seasonal affective disorder (SAD), which is caused by a change in season and is most common in winter. Dr Christos Kouimtsidis, Consultant Psychiatrist, says: “There are plenty of simple activities that you can take part in to lift your mood before spring comes around again. In the same spirit as the Danish concept of ‘hygge’, finding comfort in the ..read more

There are many resources regarding advice about mental health online, in books and in medical settings. However, you may not find that this information ‘clicks’ until it is translated into words that are relevant and relatable to you. This is why it is important to hear from everyday people who have been affected by mental health issues. Everybody experiences and deals with mental health issues in different ways. In this article, we hear from six people who have provided us with what they feel is the best piece of mental health advice that they have received. Although not all of these pieces o ..read more

Regardless of gender, getting the right help for mental health issues can help you feel seen and supported. However, for men, seeking help – whether that’s from a partner, friend or medical professional – can be more difficult due to societal stigmas. According to the Men’s Health Forum, ‘only 36% of referrals to IAPT (Increasing Access to Psychological Therapies) are men’, a staggeringly disproportionate percentage. Campaigns such as Movember aim to change this by destigmatising male mental health and raising awareness of the help available. In light of Movember 2023, we explore why men are d ..read more

Most people have procrastinated at some point in their lives, but when it starts to become a regular habit which hinders your development, it can be a problem. This is known as serial or chronic procrastination, and like many behavioural patterns, it can be very easy to slip into and difficult to break free from. We take a look at how to stop procrastinating. It is easy to dismiss serial procrastinators as lazy or disorganised, but there could be a more significant cause behind this habit that keeps people coming back to it again and again. Dr Christos Kouimtsidis, Consultant Psychiatrist at T ..read more