By Helen Massy, May 23, 2022

Alex Dimitriu, M.D., board-certified in psychiatry and sleep medicine, and founder of Menlo Park Psychiatry & Sleep Medicine in California and BrainfoodMD supplements, explained the main challenge in diagnosis is teasing apart IED from anxiety, stress, depression or sleep deprivation, as these conditions are far more common. “People act explosively with temper tantrums and rage when they are at their wit’s end, exhausted or overworked, and the smallest thing will make them snap,” Dimitriu said. “Sleep deprivation is a common reason people can become more impulsive and short-tempered. Being overworked, stressed, depressed or anxious and reactive can also make people react suddenly and intensely.”

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By Madeleine H. Burry, May 13, 2022

“The ability to travel faster (with jet engines) has resulted in people being able to fly to a place faster than their biology can adjust to the new local time,” says Alex Dimitriu, MD, who is double board-certified in psychiatry and sleep medicine and the founder of Menlo Park Psychiatry & Sleep Medicine and BrainfoodMD. “When we walked, or ran, we could not cover so many time zones in so little time,” he notes. Flying across time zones sends your circadian rhythm — aka the clock within your body that helps you know when it’s time to wake up and go to sleep, among other important physiological tasks — off-kilter. The result: You’ll feel groggy and maybe even out of sorts once you arrive at your destination.

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By Eileen Bailey, May 11, 2022

“It is important to note that the people in this study had severe enough infections to require hospitalization,” Dr. Alex Dimitriu, a psychiatrist with expertise in sleep medicine, told Healthline. “Hospitalization often means things got clinically bad enough to require a hospital stay – and this often means hypoxia, sepsis, or other illness symptoms that became severe. When the body is that sick, there are certainly impacts on the brain – from infection, inflammation, or low oxygen, and these can be damaging to brain tissue.”

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By George Citroner,  May 9, 2022

Dr. Alex Dimitriu, double board-certified in psychiatry and sleep medicine and founder of Menlo Park Psychiatry & Sleep Medicine and BrainfoodMD, noted that parents need to focus on themselves first. “Self-care is the first priority,” he said. “It is mandatory for the parent or caregiver to assure that their own basic biological needs are met – besides work and parenting.” Dimitriu advises caregivers to focus on their basic needs. He recommends that parents follow ‘SEMM,’ which stands for sleep, exercise, Mediterranean or another healthy diet, and meditation, or at least make sure they regularly get some quiet and “alone time.”

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By Lauren Vinopal, May 4, 2022

People who take antidepressants will stop abruptly for many reasons, but psychiatrist Alex Dimitriu says it often has to do with the fact that antidepressants take weeks to work. “Because of this delayed feedback loop, it’s easy to not see the benefits or costs of starting or stopping treatments — it can sometimes take weeks to catch up with you,” he explains. “Certain psych meds, especially ones with a shorter half-life, can have quite significant discontinuation symptoms.” For instance, faster-acting medications like venlafaxine, or Effexor, should be tapered off more carefully. 

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By Jenn Sinrich Apr 29, 2022

If you frequently find that you need to catch up on sleep with a long nap or sleep in on the weekends or on vacation, it could be a sign that you’re lacking in sleep efficiency, warns Alex Dimitriu, MD, who is double board-certified in Psychiatry and Sleep Medicine and founder of Menlo Park Psychiatry & Sleep Medicine. “Beware of the flip flop insomnia pattern: Some people go from undersleeping one night and oversleeping the next, in a vicious ongoing cycle,” he says. The best fix for this issue is to get enough sleep consistently, not to feel you have anything to make up for. 

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By George Citroner, Apr 27, 2022

“Obstructive sleep apnea results when the throat/airway collapses due to obstruction during sleep,” explained Alex Dimitriu, MD, double board certified in Psychiatry and Sleep Medicine and founder of Menlo Park Psychiatry & Sleep Medicine and BrainfoodMD. He described it as trying to suck on a straw that is blocked on the other end; the straw collapses. “And the airway can do the same in people who have a tendency for airway collapse,” said Dimitriu. “Fortunately, almost no one dies from sleep apnea, as the oxygen-starved brain wakes up and re-opens the airway.” Dimitriu pointed out that the problem is that some people will experience these sleep disruptions from five to 30 times per hour throughout the night.

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