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
7 episodes
More Than This Episode: When Does “Better” Become Too Much in Bipolar Depression?
“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 Bip...
LAIs in Bipolar I Disorder: Why Are We Waiting? | LAI Series, Part 3 of 3
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 L...
The LAI Conversation: Are Patients Rejecting the Treatment—or the Way We Present It? | LAI Series, Part 2 of 3
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 co...
When We Know the Medication Is There: What LAIs Have Taught Me in Practice | LAI Series, Part 1 of 3
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...
Beyond The New Drug Headlines
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...
Psychosis Is A Symptom, Not A Diagnosis
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, ...
Welcome to the Podcast: A Heart-to-Heart Conversation on Schizophrenia and Bipolar Disorder
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 feeli...