By Sarah Fielding December 07, 2021

The following day, a multiple sleep latency test (MSLT) monitors people as they take naps. It records how long a person takes to fall asleep and when they enter REM sleep, says Alex Dimitriu, MD, double board-certified in psychiatry and sleep medicine and founder of Menlo Park Psychiatry & Sleep Medicine. Doctors can also use hypocretin-1 levels to help confirm narcolepsy by “measuring levels of hypocretin or orexin in the cerebrospinal fluid. This is often done using a spinal tap,” Dr. Dimitriu tells Health. Hypocretin levels of less than 110 picrograms per milliliter “are often diagnostic of” narcolepsy type 1, he adds.

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November 22, 2021 Dr. Dimitriu was published in Psychology Today in an article titled:

ADHD Is Not Just for Kids

A 2017 online article from CHADD, Children and Adults with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, agrees. Coping mechanisms, often coupled with treatment plans, help mitigate ADHD symptoms in adults. However, CHADD experts go a step further, suggesting that the estimated 20 percent of children who seemingly outgrow ADHD when they become adults likely include those who never had the problem in the first place. They were just misdiagnosed.  ADHD is the result of a malfunction in the brain’s ability to process information due to genetics, head injury, exposure to environmental toxins, or other potential causative agents. Key characteristics of the disorder are inattentiveness and lack of concentration, hyperactivity, impulsiveness, or a combination of all these.

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November 18, 2021 — Dr. Alex Dimitriu, Founder of the Menlo Park Psychiatry and Sleep Medicine clinic, was interviewed by Insider for the article, “What It Means When You Dream About Being In Power.”

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By Carina Woudenberg, Nov 13, 2021

When it comes to the question of whether to nap even if you’re not feeling tired, Dimitriu — who specializes in both psychiatry and sleep medicine — says studies are mixed. “Napping definitely helps habitual nappers with respect to mood, alertness and cognitive processing,” he says. “However, other studies have shown no performance improvement for either habitual or non-habitual nappers. The reality is you have to listen to your body.”

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By Editor, 9th November 2021

Alex Dimitriu, double board certified psychiatrist said: “School or starting work also results in later nights out, and [people often keep] an early wake schedule to get to work. “This particular combination can lead to insufficient sleep times.”

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By Kelsey Maloney, October 28, 2021

“In my experience, we have seen great improvements in sleep quality by getting people to sleep earlier,” says Dr. Alex Dimitriu, MD, dual boarded in psychiatry and sleep medicine, owner at SiliconPsych.com. “Specifically, melatonin (the hormone that sends a signal to your body to sleep) tends to peak in the early evening, often a few hours after sunset—and subsides afterwards. Being asleep during this time, when melatonin levels are higher, has improved both sleep duration as well as sleep quality.”

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By Elizabeth Svoboda, October 2021

For anxiety-related disorders, ultra-short-term therapy is often a better option than prolonged treatment that allows destructive behaviours to solidify. ‘A short blast of intensive CBT may be helpful to get the ball rolling,’ says Alex Dimitriu, a psychiatrist in California who cautions that more sessions might eventually be needed to tune up the results. Intensive CBT can also be well-suited to client groups with specific care needs. Researchers at King’s College London are currently trialling an intensive CBT protocol for pregnant women with anxiety, who might be unable to take prescribed medication despite their acute symptoms.

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