SLEEP MEDICINE, EMOTIONAL WELL BEING AND NEUROPSYCHIATRY

CONSULTANT NEUROPSYCHIATRIST

Sleep is a process in which we spend one third of our life, and lack of sleep or inadequate sleep is linked with poor memory, poor thinking ability, labile emotions, depression and anxiety, lack of creativity and relationship issues. Moreover, inadequate sleep can lead with time to cardiovascular problems such as heart attacks or strokes, immunological problems, a variety of cancers, and to early onset of dementia, such as Alzheimer’s.

We are delighted to welcome Dr Ivana Rosenzweig, a Consultant Psychiatrist, to Grace.  Dr Rosenzweig is a certified Expert in Sleep Medicine, and one of the UK’s leading neuropsychiatrists, with more than a decade of clinical experience. Dr Rosenzweig researches the way sleep helps the brain to repair itself following daily stresses, and her therapeutic programme is based on the latest neuroscientific findings about how this process can be assisted. She uses her academic knowledge to inform her clinical approach in order to keep up the brain’s agility to cope with life stressors, and to achieve best cognitive performance.

Dr Rosenzweig has published extensively in leading international scientific and clinical journals. She trained in Psychiatry in Cambridge, and has a research Doctorate in Physiology from the University of Cambridge, a Masters in Epileptology from King’s College London and a Diploma in Clinical Neurology from University College London. She is the founder of the Sleep and Brain Plasticity Centre at the renowned Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience in London.

Major categories treated:

• Generic sleep difficulties giving rise to or stemming from general burn-out arising from work intensity, frequent jet-lags, artistic and creative block, family difficulties, menopause, new motherhood, divorce, or any traumatic event or ongoing stressful private or professional concern.
• Memory problems, general attention problems, and mild cognitive deficits in the background of disturbed or inadequate sleep. These problems can, at times, be difficult to diagnose and are often dismissed by medical professionals if not severe.
• Sleep disorders: excessive daytime sleepiness, daytime fatigue, snoring, chronic insomnia, excessive moving or fidgeting during the night, sleep talking/walking, reenacting dreams, nightmares.
• Emotional or personal difficulties (complex low mood, stress, chronic disabling anxiety, adult attention deficit disorder, etc) requiring more complex psychological or neuropsychiatric approach.

Treatments offered range from psychoeducation, supportive psychological therapies (combination of psychodynamic/integrative and cognitive analytical elements) to carefully tailored pharmacological treatment. An overnight sleep assessment might be at times required, and this can be separately arranged. This study is called polysomnography and it looks at your brain rhythms and breathing during the night in order to verify and diagnose the sleep issues and to fully inform our further management and treatment.

Special investigations (e.g. polysomnography, actigraphy, domiciliary pulse oximetry, targeted cognitive assessment), if deemed necessary, will need to be arranged in agreement with Dr Rosenzweig.

*Dr Rosenzweig is available for appointments every Thursday afternoon. Other days and home visits may be available by arrangement.