My name is David Carreon.
Who am I? What a deep question! I'll tell you my professional journey, as that's probably why you're here ;)
Narrative
I studied Civil Engineering and focused on water resources at UCLA where I developed a love for science working on mechanically probing the rigidity of single cells. I was also interested in medical service, and founded a non-profit that works to connect students wanting to help with the poor who need it in Mexico. I graduated from UCLA, and I continued my studies at Stanford School of Medicine. While there, I came across an incredible startup, anti-poverty nonprofit out of Stanford GSB called Nuru International. I decided to take a leave of absence and worked for them in Kenya, leading the healthcare team in rolling out efficient interventions like community health workers and vaccination campaigns. Upon returning, I realized how interconnected the world was and, for better or worse, how much the rest of the world looked to the United States as an example. I realized the biggest impact I could make was to help get things right at home.
As I pondered what field of medicine to pursue, I realized that all my former interests converged to a place. In medical school, I realized that I was always drawn more to the "social history" when interviewing a patient; I wanted to know the patient's story more than other details. I also loved talking, and not just small talk. Deep conversations have always been my favorite kind. Finally, I had interests in philosophy and particularly questions about human choice and in how to find meaning in life; the brain seemed to be the organ most involved in such questions and was most interesting to me. I realized that all these considerations and interests which I formerly pursued as disintegrated hobbies, could come together into a single profession: Psychiatrist.
I decided to study neuroscience in medical school to prepare for my future career, and found a mentor Amit Etkin, with whom I worked from 2012 - 2018. After much toil and tribulation (as is normally the way of it), I graduated medical school and continued into psychiatry residency at Stanford. I continued to explore questions of human choice clinically and experimentally.
In residency, I saw the best of conventional psychiatry fell short too often. Too few my patients were getting better with medication and psychotherapy alone, despite working with some of the best psychopharmacologists in the world. I continued to read about astonishing results people were getting with TMS and I wanted to be a part of it.
I opened Acacia Mental Health with my good friend from Stanford Med, Nathan Meng, MD. We wanted to help people with depression flourish, mind, body, and soul. Since opening, we've focused on the hardest cases of depression. We achieved great results using an accelerated version of TMS. In October 2021 with my colleagues at Stanford, we published incredible results in treating depression using Stanford Accelerated Intelligent Neuromodulation Therapy (SAINT) or Stanford Neuromodulation Therapy (SNT) in the prestigious American Journal of Psychiatry. At Acacia, we've adapted SAINT/SNT, combining it with the best in psychotherapy, to provide HOPE-TMS.
Research
My research interests have been focused on questions of cognitive control. My first project with the Etkin lab was using brains stimulation (transcranial magnetic stimulation, TMS) to try to modify inhibition control in healthy subjects (of course, as with any experiment involving healthy controls, I am Participant #1). One of the most fun projects I worked on was inspired by a conversation with my pastor (John Ortberg of Menlo Church) on the Experience Sampling Method called SoulPulse. In a project led by Brad Wright, we texted people with surveys at random times in the day to ask them questions about their awareness of God or their willpower, and I focused on understanding self-control "in the wild"; it turned out to have pretty good numbers after some press coverage. In another project, I looked at the role of executive function in mental illness via meta-analysis of neuroimaging studies. I'm currently working on analyzing objective measures of cognition in post-war mental illness (including PTSD, TBI and depression) and studying how these measures relate to subjective symptoms and neurological measurements.
My recent research interests are in the realm of advanced application of TMS. I am ever more convinced that it is the future of psychiatry (and probably neurology, too). We are making incredible progress in understanding how to treat mental illness ever more effectively, and I'm excited to explore these questions.
Other Interests
My interests are quite broad. I like to read, write, discuss and debate. Philosophy, faith and science tend to be my favorite topics, but I'm pretty happy to talk about anything. My recent interests have included neuroscience, psychology, economics (particularly in behavior and healthcare), statistics and history (especially of science and Christianity). I love teaching, particularly neuroscience, and have spoken dozens of times to over 10,000 people.
Who am I? What a deep question! I'll tell you my professional journey, as that's probably why you're here ;)
Narrative
I studied Civil Engineering and focused on water resources at UCLA where I developed a love for science working on mechanically probing the rigidity of single cells. I was also interested in medical service, and founded a non-profit that works to connect students wanting to help with the poor who need it in Mexico. I graduated from UCLA, and I continued my studies at Stanford School of Medicine. While there, I came across an incredible startup, anti-poverty nonprofit out of Stanford GSB called Nuru International. I decided to take a leave of absence and worked for them in Kenya, leading the healthcare team in rolling out efficient interventions like community health workers and vaccination campaigns. Upon returning, I realized how interconnected the world was and, for better or worse, how much the rest of the world looked to the United States as an example. I realized the biggest impact I could make was to help get things right at home.
As I pondered what field of medicine to pursue, I realized that all my former interests converged to a place. In medical school, I realized that I was always drawn more to the "social history" when interviewing a patient; I wanted to know the patient's story more than other details. I also loved talking, and not just small talk. Deep conversations have always been my favorite kind. Finally, I had interests in philosophy and particularly questions about human choice and in how to find meaning in life; the brain seemed to be the organ most involved in such questions and was most interesting to me. I realized that all these considerations and interests which I formerly pursued as disintegrated hobbies, could come together into a single profession: Psychiatrist.
I decided to study neuroscience in medical school to prepare for my future career, and found a mentor Amit Etkin, with whom I worked from 2012 - 2018. After much toil and tribulation (as is normally the way of it), I graduated medical school and continued into psychiatry residency at Stanford. I continued to explore questions of human choice clinically and experimentally.
In residency, I saw the best of conventional psychiatry fell short too often. Too few my patients were getting better with medication and psychotherapy alone, despite working with some of the best psychopharmacologists in the world. I continued to read about astonishing results people were getting with TMS and I wanted to be a part of it.
I opened Acacia Mental Health with my good friend from Stanford Med, Nathan Meng, MD. We wanted to help people with depression flourish, mind, body, and soul. Since opening, we've focused on the hardest cases of depression. We achieved great results using an accelerated version of TMS. In October 2021 with my colleagues at Stanford, we published incredible results in treating depression using Stanford Accelerated Intelligent Neuromodulation Therapy (SAINT) or Stanford Neuromodulation Therapy (SNT) in the prestigious American Journal of Psychiatry. At Acacia, we've adapted SAINT/SNT, combining it with the best in psychotherapy, to provide HOPE-TMS.
Research
My research interests have been focused on questions of cognitive control. My first project with the Etkin lab was using brains stimulation (transcranial magnetic stimulation, TMS) to try to modify inhibition control in healthy subjects (of course, as with any experiment involving healthy controls, I am Participant #1). One of the most fun projects I worked on was inspired by a conversation with my pastor (John Ortberg of Menlo Church) on the Experience Sampling Method called SoulPulse. In a project led by Brad Wright, we texted people with surveys at random times in the day to ask them questions about their awareness of God or their willpower, and I focused on understanding self-control "in the wild"; it turned out to have pretty good numbers after some press coverage. In another project, I looked at the role of executive function in mental illness via meta-analysis of neuroimaging studies. I'm currently working on analyzing objective measures of cognition in post-war mental illness (including PTSD, TBI and depression) and studying how these measures relate to subjective symptoms and neurological measurements.
My recent research interests are in the realm of advanced application of TMS. I am ever more convinced that it is the future of psychiatry (and probably neurology, too). We are making incredible progress in understanding how to treat mental illness ever more effectively, and I'm excited to explore these questions.
Other Interests
My interests are quite broad. I like to read, write, discuss and debate. Philosophy, faith and science tend to be my favorite topics, but I'm pretty happy to talk about anything. My recent interests have included neuroscience, psychology, economics (particularly in behavior and healthcare), statistics and history (especially of science and Christianity). I love teaching, particularly neuroscience, and have spoken dozens of times to over 10,000 people.