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Symptoms of depression can include a depressed mood, loss of interest in things that normally give you pleasure (anhedonia), sleep disturbance, prominent thoughts of guilt or remorse, low energy, difficulty concentrating, a change in appetite with significant weight loss or gain, feeling heavy-limbed or being more agitated, and/or having suicidal thoughts. We’ll describe the severity of an episode by the number and intensity of symptoms present, as well as the degree to which they are impairing your functioning.
People with a winter-type seasonal pattern of depression, will have recurrences in the fall or winter over at least a two-year period, and their recurrences either occur only during winter months or predominantly in winter. Not surprisingly, individuals with SAD often have low vitamin D levels due to dietary insufficiency or decreased exposure to sunshine.
While depression can resolve spontaneously without treatment, in many cases it does not, and people suffer unnecessarily. Depression is treatable. Antidepressant medication, light therapy, psychotherapy, and vitamin D supplementation, often in combination, are recommended to change SAD to glad.
As a Board-Certified psychiatrist, Dr. Brian Taylor provides care to both adults and adolescents ages 16 and older, who desire evaluation and treatment of their mental health issue(s) regardless of complexity. For over two decades, while working with the public sector, he has treated our most seriously and persistently mentally ill populations of the Bay Area and Southern California. With VCBH since 2008, Dr. Taylor has delivered care to geriatric, forensic, addiction, crisis residential and long-term rehabilitation specialty populations.
Practicing general adult psychiatry, Dr. Taylor is experienced in treating all psychiatric disorders including major depression, generalized anxiety, panic disorder, PTSD, obsessive- compulsive disorder, impulse control disorders, bipolar disorders, schizophrenia spectrum disorders, neurocognitive disorders, ADHD, sleep disorders, personality disorders and substance use disorders. Office-Based Opioid Treatment (Suboxone) is also offered for those requiring medication-assisted treatment for Opioid Use Disorder.
He offers a complete psychiatric evaluation, including psychosocial assessment, discusses his clinical impressions with his patients, provides education about mental health syndromes, and makes recommendations for you based on current, evidence-based practice guidelines. Equally important, the risks and benefits of treatment, as well as the risks of not treating are also discussed. Psychopharmacologic and psychotherapeutic strategies are tailored to meet patients’ needs and relieve the distressing
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