Unpacking Schizophrenia and Bipolar Disorder with Dr. Lori Kumar
Psychiatry is complicated. The science matters, but so does what happens when that science meets a real person, a real family, and a treatment plan they actually have to live with. I’m Dr. Lori Kumar, a doctoral-prepared, board-certified Psychiatric-Mental Health Nurse Practitioner with nearly a decade of specialized behavioral health experience. My clinical work centers on serious mental illness and complex psychopharmacology. I have worked across community outpatient, acute inpatient, forensic, geriatric, substance-use, and interventional psychiatry. Those settings have shaped the way I practice and the questions I continue to ask about psychiatric treatment. That curiosity eventually pushed me beyond the clinic. I created Unpacking Schizophrenia and Bipolar Disorder with Dr. Lori Kumar because I wanted a place to explore the parts of psychiatric treatment that do not always fit neatly into a textbook. I host the podcast, write a clinical newsletter on LinkedIn, create short educational videos, and interview clinicians and experts whose work I want to learn from. My YouTube channel brings that work together in one place. I’m interested in taking complicated science and asking: What does this actually mean when we are sitting across from a client trying to make a treatment decision? I have also had the opportunity to present at Psych Congress Elevate, precept future clinicians, and receive patient-nominated recognition for compassionate, patient-centered care. Teaching has become an increasingly important part of the work I want to continue doing. I am especially interested in thoughtful collaborations with clinicians, healthcare organizations, pharmaceutical and Medical Affairs teams, educators, advocates, and others working to improve how we understand and treat serious mental illness. Psychopharmacology. Impact. Empathy. Podcast, Newsletter, YouTube & More: https://linktr.ee/Dr.LoriKumarDNP
Episodes
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“I feel amazing” is usually what we hope to hear after months of depression. With bipolar depression, it can also be the moment we need to slow down and get much more precise about what “better” actually means.
We start Part 1 of our Bipolar Depression in Practice series with a deceptively hard clinical question: how do we tell the difference between ...
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We wait for a relapse, a missed stretch of pills, or a hospitalization, and only then the words “long-acting injectable” finally show up. I’m stepping back to ask a cleaner question for bipolar I disorder care: what needs to be true before an LAI earns a place in the conversation, not as a last resort, but as a thoughtfully explained option in maintenance treatmen...
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A patient says, “I hate needles,” and the room tightens. Do we hear a hard no, a fear we can work with, or a past experience that needs words before it needs a plan? We get real about long-acting injectable antipsychotics (LAIs) and what the conversation actually sounds like in everyday psychiatric care when I’m excited about an option and my client is unsure.
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A long-acting injectable antipsychotic can do more than solve “Did you take your meds?” It can change the entire way we interpret progress, setbacks, and what “medication failure” actually means. I’m starting a three-part series on LAIs in real practice because I’ve watched injectables open doors for clients who were stuck in cycles of relapse, h...
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A new psychiatric medication gets approved, social media starts buzzing, and suddenly the question lands in the exam room: “Should I take this?” We want to slow that moment down. A headline about a new mechanism of action is interesting, but it does not answer the real clinical question: where does this treatment fit for the person sitting right in front of us, with the...
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Psychosis can be terrifying, urgent, and unmistakable and it can still be misdiagnosed if we treat a symptom like a final answer. We walk through a clinical truth with huge consequences for assessment and documentation: psychosis is a symptom, not a diagnosis. When “schizophrenia” shows up in the chart too early, it can steer future clinicians, shape family expectations...
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Hi I am your host Dr. Lori Kumar. I am a doctoral-prepared, board-certified psychiatric mental health nurse practitioner.
Schizophrenia and bipolar disorder get talked about constantly, yet many patients and families walk away feeling more confused and more alone. We made this show to slow the conversation down and rebuild it with clarity, nuance, and respect. I share why pers...
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