David Okai

Pleased with the recent interest in this exciting project below. Our website is now up and running to help clinicians and/or patient volunteers, find out more about the study or enrol. Do please get in touch. 🔬 Exciting Opportunity! We’re recruiting for a MRC funded, groundbreaking ‘brain pacemaker’ study to tackle alcohol and opioid addiction through a randomized control trial (RCT). This study leverages Deep Brain Stimulation (DBS), akin to a heart pacemaker, to normalize brain rhythms. Previous trials have shown significant efficacy. We need: 🔹 Alcohol & Opioid use disorder patients 🔹 Minimum 5-year addiction history with repeated relapses 🔹 Motivated to quit but facing frequent relapses 🔹 May be on methadone/buprenorphine with breakthrough use (greater than 1x/week or 5x/month) Key points: ✔️ DBS is FDA/CE approved for Parkinson’s (since 1997) & OCD (since 2009) ✔️ FDA Breakthrough Device approval for addiction (2022) ✔️ Safe with over 250,000 devices in use globally The device targets the nucleus accumbens and ventral internal capsule fibers, similar to successful OCD treatments. Previous RCTs in this area show good results, with some patients achieving prolonged abstinence after years of struggle. Study design includes physiological mechanism analysis and a clinical RCT, with all participants receiving stimulation in an open-label arm, followed by a crossover trial at six months. Interested? Join us in pioneering this innovative treatment! 🌟 #AddictionResearch #DBS #ClinicalTrials #BrainPacemaker @valvoon For more info please see the website: brain-pacer.com @AlcoholChangeUK @changegrowlive @WeAreWithYou @WeAreWithYou @DDNMagazine @UK_AHA @ActionAddiction @TurningPointUK2 @AlcoholFocus @InstAlcStud

Can we localise FBDS? (At last ……. After so many years of hypotheses…) . We can get close…. Great work led by @SoontaeLeeMD @SamanthaBanksMD and colleagues

@JAMAPsych ...and a more neuroscience based view of brain disorders. Negative symptoms would be termed 'apathy' in a more neuroscience referenced view of the brain.

This case-control study found that adults with schizophrenia had significantly greater frontal cortex serotonin release than healthy controls, and greater release correlated with more severe negative symptoms. ja.ma/4qffsr0

Great projects presented at #NNTM. Congratulations to the three finalists, and thank you to everyone who submitted a poster and shared their work with us. #neurotransformation

1/11 🧵 If a clinician works like a chatbot, then chatbots will indeed become better at diagnosis. But some of us do not work like chatbots. Let me share a few scenes from my clinical practice that differ fundamentally from the kind of assessments currently performed by chatbots.

@joannamoncrieff pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/38569876/ Here there is large scale proof of neuroanatomical association with depression... Neuroanatomical and prognostic associations of depression in Parkinson's disease - it's a shame psychiatry has at times forsaken the rapidly evolving world of neuroscience.

There are some great comments including 'Feelings are a way to let you know something is wrong.'

In this podcast I discuss the mass fraud that was the promotion of the idea that depression is caused by a chemical imbalance, and its implications. According to one viewer: 'Probably the most important and best video of the century so far' youtube.com/watch?v=zcBul7…. @DrJosefWD

@joannamoncrieff @DrJosefWD What about Depression in Parkinson's as a biomarker for the condition? And the clear correlation with being motorically off, and anxious? Multifactoral - yes, so not 'causative' but disingenuous to suggest there is no biological contribution.

Great feedback from the Foundation Course, of the Neurology Academy Masterclass in Sheffield. Not sure what to do about the voice comment after lunch, though!!! 😅@TheNeuroAcademy #parkinson's @rcpsychNeuro #LunchBreak

New study!! Suicide risk in primary care, often overlooked in suicide research (which typically focuses on people identified by specialist services). We followed up 1.4M people diagnosed with common mental disorders over 20 years 1/

@rcpsychOldAge @rcpsych

A great meeting in prospect - neurodevelopment, medico-legal, global, assisted dying and dementia, genes, biomarkers, mania, feotal alcohol... @KarlFristonNews @Mark_Solms @kesleeman @rcpsychNeuro @The_BNPA @CogNPsychiatry @SecretaryINA Please RT

@UCLBrainScience @MasudHusain @foltynie @UCLIoN Can't access the post. Hope they discussed the Neuropsychiatry of Parkinson’s.😀

Parkinson's is the fastest-growing neurodegenerative disease in the world and yet many of us know very little about it. Prof @foltynie (@UCLIoN) contributes to this awareness raising article in the Telegraph. telegraph.co.uk/health-fitness…

CTE and normal aging are difficult to distinguish, new study finds news.northwestern.edu/stories/2025/0… by @NorthwesternU #dementia #TBI #sports #health

Well done @doctorcordelle !!!!👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾🎊

We were excited to see Dr. Jacqueline Philips-Owen speak at the House of Commons on behalf of Maudsley Education Consultation service (MECS) sharing how they're supporting students' mental health across South London.

Covered by BMJ bmj.com/content/390/bm…

Most studies on esketamine (and the UK licence) have been as add-on to antidepressants. This study suggests monotherapy may also be effective - although only short term data. As ever the challenge with (es)ketamine comes in the longer term.

@TheNeuroAcademy Nooooo…oooooo…!!!!!!

After 23 years of leading #Parkinsons Academy, Dr Peter Fletcher has officially handed over the reins. We surprised him with a celebration dinner during our recent Parkinson's Advanced MasterClass. Read more on our website: eu1.hubs.ly/H0lsxqL0 Thank you Peter! 💙

He et al. recorded neural activity from the motor cortex and thalamus, along with hand tremor signals, in people with essential tremor. Their findings provide new insights into the cortico-thalamic network involved in tremor generation. tinyurl.com/4b3ppah2

Today, at a conference in Pune, India, Dr Sule a senior psychiatrist talked about his 50 years of psychiatry practice in Nashik, India. Only Chlorpromazine and unmodified ECT were available as treatment when he started practice. He expressed gratitude to scientists who made all the progress possible and changed the world for better for all of us and our patients. I think we need to hear more of this to maintain our fortitude and vigour for clinical practice. Otherwise relentless onslaught of anti psychiatry will decimate common sense.