drrobertkohn

Respected researcher, academic, and practicing psychiatrist Robert Kohn, MD, investigates diverse topics in geriatric and cultural psychiatry. In addition to serving as a visiting professor at universities in Portugal and Chile, Dr. Robert Kohn has also consulted with the World Health Organization on matters pertaining to global mental health.

In 2019, WHO established a special initiative to increase mental health care access to more than 100 million individuals in underserved nations. Mental health access is impeded in lower-middle and low-income countries due to a lack of infrastructure and trained professionals. For example, the number of available beds for in-patient mental health services in high-income nations outnumbers those in lower-income countries by 10 to 1.

Further, nearly half of the world’s inhabitants reside in nations with very low psychiatrist to patient ratios. Many nations also do not address mental health at the government level. While a third of wealthy countries have developed a suicide prevention strategy, none of the low-income countries have drafted a similar policy. In addition, half of all WHO member states do not have mental health laws in place to address disparities faced by people with mental illnesses.

Medical researcher and geriatric psychiatrist Dr. Robert Kohn completed his residency at Brown University, where he later held a professorial post. Robert Kohn, MD, maintains a focus on disorders prevalent in geriatric psychiatry, including Alzheimer’s disease.

A study conducted by the University of California, San Francisco investigating the impact of abnormal proteins on the brain revealed that early-stage Alzheimer’s may first appear as psychiatric symptoms. Researchers studied the buildup of tau proteins in more than 1,000 individual brain tissue samples. This was combined with qualitative interviews with some brain donors’ close caregivers and family members.

The data suggest a link between tau proteins, known as tangles, and symptoms such as agitation and depression. Individuals who passed before the disease impacted their memory were more likely to have exhibited changes to their appetites and sleeping patterns before their death. Further, symptoms seem to progress as the tangles spread from the brainstem to the outer cortex. Investigators hope these findings will improve the diagnosis and treatment of early-stage Alzheimer’s.

Author: drrobertkohn

WHO Highlights Disparity in Global Mental Health Care

Psychiatric Symptoms That Can Indicate Alzheimer’s