Affective Neuroscience: Understanding Patients Beyond DSM Diagnoses

Affective neuroscience in psychiatry may offer a better way to understand patients who do not fit neatly into DSM categories. Dr. White joins us to explain Jaak Panksepp’s seven primary emotional systems, the difference between affect and emotion, and how subcortical emotional arousal interacts with cortical regulation. We discuss anger, borderline personality disorder, cognitive decline, mindfulness, ACT, emotional blunting with SSRIs, and why some cases labeled treatment-resistant depression may need a better formulation rather than another medication. We also get into the neuroscience behind the model… from decortication and brain-stimulation studies to TMS… and ask what psychiatry loses when diagnosis comes before understanding affect.Dr. White’s Substack: This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit psychofarm.substack.com