Show #189 – Dr David Rabin, MD & PhD: Improved methods for mental illness challenges

LISTEN TO THIS WEEK’S SHOW ON iTUNES, STITCHER OR SPOTIFY OR LISTEN RIGHT HERE:

Love our new show tune in the intro/outro? It’s talented Australian independent artist Melanie Horsnell’s song “Birds”. So proud to support this wonderful Aussie artist and have her grace the show with her wonderful words and song!

 

Want to join the Low Tox Club for just $49AUD ($29USD/28EUR/23pounds) per YEAR? We have created a special place and set of resources to help you achieve your goals and it’s a wonderful place to be – more details and registration here: https://www.lowtoxlife.com/the-low-tox-club/

And onto this week’s show!

This week’s guest is medical psychiatrist and neuroscientist, Dr David Rabin. You can shrug your shoulders about patients not responding to treatments or you can figure out other ways to support them and that’s what David has done for over 15 years. Dr. Rabin received his MD in medicine and Ph.D. in neuroscience from Albany Medical College and specialized in psychiatry with a distinction in research at Western Psychiatric Institute & Clinic at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center.

He has specifically focused his research on the clinical translation of non-invasive therapies that improve mood, focus, sleep, and quality of life in treatment-resistant illnesses. Through his work over the years, Dr. Rabin realized that his patients with chronic mental illnesses who were diagnosed as “treatment-resistant” (having tried two or more gold-standard western treatment courses and failed to sustain sufficient symptom remission) often experienced symptom relief with empathic listening, soothing music, therapeutic touch, biofeedback, yoga, meditation, and other similar practices in the office, but struggled to maintain these benefits at home.

Today we talked about different ways to support and heal PTSD, chronic stress, anxiety, and other mental health challenges so that a higher percentage of patients can find solutions. It’s a fascinating insight into Dr Rabin’s work from his research on microdosing of psychedelics, to psychotherapy, meditation, and the creation of wearable tech “Apollo”. I hope you enjoy this look into David’s work and connect to the further exploration

The Questions I asked David:

1. You’re an MD and Ph.D.: Which came first: Psychiatry or Neuroscience? And what drew you to the other?
2. With what you’ve gone on to do, you didn’t seem satisfied with the private practice, one on one format – what was missing for you and your patients that you felt needed continued research and exploration?
3. Can we do a 101 on the nervous system CNS/ANS parasympathetic/sympathetic, the balance that should be present and how/why it becomes imbalance in some? 
4. And often people get a comforting quick fix from their yoga or meditation only to feel ‘out of control’ with stress later that day… is this because chronic stress keeps certain people tipped towards sympathetic? 
5. What were some of the treatments – medication and complementary – that you explored when you first started wanting to bring these systems back into balance? 
6. How did the study of vibration and creation of Apollo come about? 
7. What are your plans to get this into the hands of more people? 
8. Let’s talk about micro-dosing psychedelics for ‘treatment-resistant’ PTSD/other mental illness and what got you interested in that study – and by the way how do we get to a point where we call micro-dosing psychedelics a treatment in its own right instead of having to try pharmaceuticals first and THEN alternatives? 
9. Do micro-doses of different psychedelics do different things? Where are we at in understanding the scope? 
10. Can you share a story or two of people’s lives fundamentally changed by the use of the cutting edge treatment? 
11. And finally, the Board of Medicine – I was just talking the other day about how incredible it would be to find formal, peer-reviewed research accepted by doctors for complementary treatments, supplements, and herbs and then came across the BoM. How did you go about starting this? What kinds of medical professionals have joined you and what is your goal? Is it to grow the voice and evidence for the use of complementary therapies in mainstream medicine? 
12. You are fascinated with the inherent ability of the body’s ability to heal – would you add to that based on the work you’ve done so far in your life, inherent ability, given the right tools? (this one could come quite a bit earlier in the interview) 
13. What’s the most significant thing you’ve learnt that no formal study could ever have taught you? 
14. What’s frustrating you right now in the field of medicine?
15. What are you most excited by on the horizon?

Other helpful links:

Find out more about David: https://www.boardofmedicine.org/board-members

and Apollo Neuroscience: https://apolloneuro.com

Join him on Instagram @drdavidrabin and on Facebook.

 

 

********