South Chesapeake Psychiatry

04/20/2026

🧠 Myth vs. Fact: Mental Health Edition

❌ MYTH: Medication is a last resort and a sign of weakness.
✅ FACT: Psychiatric medication is a medical treatment — just like medication for blood pressure or diabetes. It helps correct chemical imbalances in the brain so you can function and feel your best.

There is no shame in getting the help you need. We're here whenever you're ready.

📞 (757) 908-2124

04/19/2026

Now accepting new patients in Chesapeake, VA! 🎉

Whether you're dealing with anxiety, depression, ADHD, bipolar disorder, or something else entirely — we're here to help you find a path forward.

✅ Virtual & in-person appointments available
✅ Direct access to your provider
✅ Personalized, unhurried care

📞 (757) 908-2124 | southchesapeakepsychiatry.com

Take steps towards mental wellness with expert psychiatric evaluations and 1-on-1 medication management and treatments. Schedule an Appointment Today!

04/18/2026

GLP-1 agonists may end up forcing psychiatry to confront a reality it has been too comfortable ignoring for too long: the biology of mental illness does not begin and end with monoamines.

For years, most of us thought of this class as living squarely in diabetes and weight management. But the deeper you go into the literature, the harder it becomes to ignore what is happening at the intersection of metabolism, reward circuitry, inflammation, addiction, and mood. These are not side conversations anymore. They are increasingly central ones.

In this edition of The Neuropsychiatry Brief, I take a closer look at why GLP-1 agonists are becoming more relevant to psychiatric practice. That includes their potential role in addressing antipsychotic-associated metabolic burden, the emerging alcohol use disorder signal, and the larger question of whether some of psychiatry’s most interesting future treatments may come from outside traditional psychiatric drug development altogether.

What keeps striking me is that this is really the same lesson we keep running into from different angles. Hormones matter. Inflammation matters. Metabolic dysfunction matters. Reward circuitry matters. The nervous system does not care how neatly we divide specialties. Biology is layered, and our treatment models are going to have to become more layered with it.

The point is not novelty. It is function. If a medication helps reduce craving, softens the metabolic cost of an otherwise effective treatment, or helps restore engagement in a life someone is trying to hold onto, psychiatry should be paying attention.

Edition 14 of The Neuropsychiatry Brief is out now.

https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:ugcPost:7451257360100184064/

GLP-1 agonists may end up forcing psychiatry to confront a reality it has been too comfortable ignoring for too long: the biology of mental illness does not begin and end with monoamines. For years, most of us thought of this class as living squarely in diabetes and weight management. But the deeper...

04/17/2026

It's Friday! 🌟 We want to know — what's ONE thing you do to protect your mental health during a stressful week?

Drop it in the comments below. You might inspire someone who needs it today. 👇

04/15/2026

We founded South Chesapeake Psychiatry because we believe you deserve more than a rushed 15-minute appointment. 🙌

Our initial evaluations are a full 60 minutes — because understanding YOU takes time. Your history, your symptoms, your goals. We don't cut corners.

That's the South Chesapeake difference. Personalized care from providers with 50+ combined years of psychiatric experience, who are available to you by phone and email between appointments.

Follow our page to learn more about what we do and how we can help. 💙

04/13/2026

Did you know that nearly 1 in 5 adults in the U.S. lives with a mental health condition — yet most wait years before seeking help? 💙

At South Chesapeake Psychiatry, we believe getting the right support shouldn't be complicated. We offer personalized psychiatric evaluations, medication management, and SPRAVATO® treatments for depression, anxiety, ADHD, and more — virtually or in-person right here in Chesapeake, VA.

Taking the first step is the hardest part. We're here to make everything after that easier.

📞 Call us: (757) 908-2124
🌐 southchesapeakepsychiatry.com

Take steps towards mental wellness with expert psychiatric evaluations and 1-on-1 medication management and treatments. Schedule an Appointment Today!

04/08/2026

Sometimes the best ideas don’t come from the lab. They come from the field.

I’m currently in Boston, where I just finished giving a presentation, and I opened my email to some exciting news: my abstract has been accepted as a poster presentation at the 40th Annual Conference of the American Psychiatric Nurses Association (APNA).

The poster is based on a perspective I have been developing around schizophrenia, cognition, and how we measure treatment success.

For decades, schizophrenia trials have largely been built around symptom scales designed to detect rapid reductions in overt psychosis. Tools like the PANSS have been incredibly valuable for that purpose. But the biology of the illness, and the biology of emerging treatments, may not always reveal itself through those same lenses.

Cognitive impairment remains one of the strongest predictors of whether someone living with schizophrenia can work, maintain relationships, sustain independence, and translate symptom stability into real-world recovery. Yet cognition still sits on the sidelines of many clinical trial endpoints.

The work behind this poster asks a simple question: what happens when our endpoints are optimized for one biological model while the next generation of therapies may operate through different mechanisms?

If cognition truly represents a central axis of schizophrenia, then our clinical trials — and ultimately our treatments, need to reflect that reality.

Much of this perspective was shaped by years working in community psychiatry, ACT teams, crisis centers, jails, and assisted living facilities. In those environments you quickly learn something quickly: symptom suppression does not always equal recovery. The difference between surviving and reclaiming a life often comes down to whether someone can organize thought, process information, and navigate the world again.

I’m grateful to APNA for the opportunity to present this work and contribute to the conversation about where schizophrenia research and treatment may be headed next.

Looking forward to the discussions ahead.

04/03/2026

In the wake of the tragic events at Old Dominion University, many in the Hampton Roads community have been reflecting on the importance of supporting one another during difficult moments.

When students returned to campus following the closure and spring break, the Ellmer School of Nursing invited psychiatric nurse practitioner and alumnus Justin Ray (B.S.N. ’06) to spend time with students who may have needed support while processing the events.

Justin adjusted his clinical schedule to be on campus throughout the day, visiting several nursing classes and making himself available for individual conversations with students who wished to talk privately. His goal was simple: to offer a listening ear, provide reassurance, and remind students that community and connection are essential during challenging times.

He was also joined by Ruth, the therapy dog and “Chief Compassion Officer,” whose presence brought comfort and a few much needed smiles to students and faculty alike.

As a veteran, clinician, and father of an ODU student, Justin understands the weight that moments like this can carry for individuals and communities alike. His message to students was a simple but powerful reminder that even in difficult times, we are stronger when we take care of one another.

The team at South Chesapeake Psychiatry is grateful for the opportunity to support the students, faculty, and staff at Old Dominion University and continues to keep the family of Lt. Col. Brandon Shah and all those affected in their thoughts.

04/01/2026

Happy Birthday, Sarah! 🎂❤️

It's not every day you get to celebrate someone who pours this much heart into everything she does. From leading our incredible team at South Chesapeake Psychiatry to getting out in the community and making a real difference — Sarah shows up every single day with purpose, grace, and a whole lot of energy.

And when it's time to celebrate? Nobody does it better. (The Gatsby party was proof of that. 🥂)

We're so grateful to have you — not just as part of the team, but as family. Wishing you the happiest of birthdays and many, many more beautiful years ahead.

Here's to you, Sarah. 🥳

— The SCP Family

03/28/2026

I joke with my female clients sometimes that they must have upset the man upstairs somehow.

After all, they are the ones who experience menstruation cycles, pregnancy, childbirth, postpartum hormonal shifts, and eventually the endocrine turbulence of perimenopause and menopause. The humor usually lands because there is a shared understanding behind it. And if we are being honest, if men had to experience even one of those physiologic realities, there is a good chance we would be protesting in the streets by lunchtime.

The joke works because it highlights something that is clinically obvious but strangely under-discussed in psychiatry. Hormonal transitions are among the most powerful biological forces affecting mood, sleep, cognition, irritability, energy, and overall functioning. Yet the field has historically treated hormones as though they sit adjacent to psychiatry rather than squarely within it.

That disconnect does not make much sense from a biological standpoint. We routinely discuss neurotransmitters, glutamate signaling, neuroplasticity, and circuit dynamics when we talk about mental health. At the same time, conversations about estrogen, progesterone, and endocrine transitions across the female lifespan often become hesitant or simplified in ways that do not reflect their real neurobiological influence.

That tension pushed me to write the newest issue of The Neuropsychiatry Brief.

In Edition 11, I explore the relationship between hormones, mood, and risk during the menopause transition, along with persistent misconceptions surrounding hormone replacement therapy and cancer risk. The modern literature suggests something far more nuanced than the flattened narratives many clinicians still carry from earlier training. Perimenopausal women show a measurable increase in risk for depressive symptoms, but that vulnerability is not universal and tends to concentrate among those with prior depression, severe vasomotor symptoms, sleep disruption, or significant psychosocial stressors.

The conversation around hormone therapy itself has also evolved. The idea that “hormones cause cancer” does not accurately reflect the complexity of the data. Contemporary guidance emphasizes that risk varies depending on formulation, timing relative to menopause, route of administration, and duration of therapy.

None of this means hormones are a universal antidepressant. But it does mean that if hormonal shifts can meaningfully alter sleep, stress tolerance, cognition, and emotional regulation, then they are not peripheral to psychiatry. They are part of the biology shaping the clinical picture sitting across from us in the exam room.

The full discussion is explored in the newest issue of The Neuropsychiatry Brief.

When we talked previously about postpartum depression, we were really talking about one of psychiatry’s recurring blind spots: we are often comfortable discussing neurotransmitters, circuits, and symptom scales, but far less comfortable discussing hormones with the same seriousness. That is a mist...

03/23/2026

Psychiatry may be quietly shifting away from monoamines and toward something much deeper: neuroplasticity.

For decades psychiatry framed depression primarily through the lens of monoamines. SSRIs, SNRIs, and dopamine modulation dominated the conversation, and for many people those medications still work well. But the past decade has forced the field to reconsider whether we have been focusing on the wrong level of the system.

Increasingly, the evidence suggests that many effective treatments converge on something deeper: neuroplasticity.

Ketamine and esketamine accelerated this conversation by demonstrating that meaningful antidepressant effects could occur within hours rather than weeks. The emerging psychoplastogen literature raised an even more provocative question: if structural and functional plasticity is the true therapeutic driver, do we actually need the psychedelic experience to achieve it?

That question led me to a molecule I have been watching for quite some time: osavampator.

Unlike ketamine, which indirectly increases AMPA signaling through NMDA antagonism, osavampator works directly as a positive allosteric modulator of the AMPA receptor. In other words, it attempts to engage the same plasticity cascade from a different entry point.

What makes this particularly interesting from a clinical standpoint is the potential practicality. Running a Spravato treatment center reinforces every day that while these treatments can be extremely effective, they also require infrastructure. Monitoring, chair time, scheduling, staff, and a controlled clinical environment all become part of the therapeutic equation.

An orally administered AMPA modulator that engages plasticity pathways without dissociation or sedation would represent a very different implementation model if the signal holds.

Early Phase 2 data from the SAVITRI trial have generated attention, with effect sizes approaching 0.7 and remission rates nearing 50 percent by eight weeks in adjunctive treatment resistant depression. Whether those results replicate in Phase 3 remains to be seen, but mechanistically the compound sits directly in the middle of the broader shift psychiatry appears to be undergoing.

We may be moving away from receptor occupancy as our dominant framework and toward something more fundamental: circuit modulation and network plasticity.

Edition 10 of The Neuropsychiatry Brief explores this emerging AMPA story and why it may represent another piece of the larger plasticity puzzle.

If the future of antidepressant treatment is about helping the brain reorganize itself rather than simply nudging neurotransmitters, this is a development worth watching.

If you enjoy these discussions, you can subscribe to The Neuropsychiatry Brief directly on LinkedIn.

If you have followed this newsletter over the past several editions, you have probably noticed that a recurring theme keeps appearing beneath many of the mechanisms we discuss. Whether we are talking about ketamine, psychoplastogens, neuromodulation, or emerging serotonergic compounds, the conversat