255 - Mental health issues and hormones: introducing Newson Health’s psychiatrist Dr Louisa James

The Dr Louise Newson Podcast

Dr Louise Newson

Health & Fitness, Mental Health, Medicine

4.8 • 798 Ratings

🗓️ 7 May 2024

⏱️ 31 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

This week on the podcast Dr Louise is joined by a new colleague, Dr Louisa James, a psychiatrist who has recently joined the team at Newson Health. Dr Louisa’s personal experience of the menopause prompted her to learn more about the impact of hormones, and incorporate her knowledge in her role as an NHS consultant psychiatrist in a home treatment service. Here she discusses the importance, and power, of asking patients about their hormones during a psychiatric appointment. Finally, Dr Louisa shares her tips for thinking about your hormones alongside your mental health: 1.Consider whether this feels different to any previous episodes of depression you may have experienced or if your symptoms are fluctuating. Some women have suicidal thoughts or are depressed at certain times of the month. Track your symptoms and look at the fluctuations. Your history can affect your menopause. If you’ve had an episode of postnatal depression or PMDD, then you're more likely to experience mental health difficulties in the perimenopause. How do you feel about your life? Lack of joy rather than a sadness, the emotional lability, is often greater with a hormonal mental health problem whereas irritability, rage and impulsiveness can be greater with mental health problems. Dr Louisa James is now offering consultations to existing Newson Health patients. Click here for details.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello, I'm Dr Louise Newsome. I'm a GP and menopause specialist, and I'm also the founder of the Newsome Health Menopause and wellbeing centre here in Stratford-Pon-Avon.
0:21.6	I'm also the founder of the free Balance app.
0:25.6	Each week on my podcast, join me and my special guests where we discuss all things perimenopause
0:31.6	and menopause. We talk about the latest research, bust myths on menopause symptoms and treatments,
0:38.2	and often share moving and always inspirational personal stories.
0:43.7	This podcast is brought to you by the Newsome Health Group,
0:46.9	which has clinics across the UK dedicated to providing individualised perimenopause and menopause care for all women.
1:02.5	As many of you might know who's listened to my podcast before, the most important area of
1:08.0	menopause and hormones in my mind is about mental health and hormones,
1:13.7	which I hadn't realized many years ago when I started to learn a little bit about the menopause.
1:19.1	It was all about hot flushes, night sweats, vaginal dryness.
1:22.8	And that's still what many people perceive the menopause is when we think about symptoms. But actually,
1:29.3	seeing the thousands of women and listening to thousands of stories over the last seven,
1:33.6	eight years or so that I have is the mental health component that worries me the most because
1:38.3	it's neglected the most. And the more I do, the more I see. And actually, the more I see how
1:42.7	mental health improves with hormones, the more worried I am And actually, the more I see how mental health improves with hormones,
1:45.6	the more worried I am that we're not doing enough. So I have quite a chaotic life. I'm always
1:50.8	reaching out to people. I'm always sending emails far too late at night saying, are you interested?
1:56.0	What do you think? Is this something that you're seeing in your clinical practice? So today I've got with me a consultant
2:01.7	psychiatrist, Dr. Louisa James, who answered to one of my crazy emails, probably late at night or
2:07.6	over the weekend, and we spoke. And I'm now really delighted because she's been working very
2:12.5	closely with us behind the scenes, and now she's actually working with us in our clinic, in the
	...

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