Your mind. Understood.
Understand what your mind is doing.
An evidence-based encyclopedia of mental health, medically reviewed by Shariq Refai, MD, MBA, a board-certified psychiatrist. Explanations of symptoms, conditions, treatments, and the science behind mental health.
Shrinkopedia is the concept library of The Shrink Network. If Shrinktionary explains words, Shrinkopedia explains what those words mean in context, and when reading isn't enough, care lives at shrinkMD.
Shrinkopedia is organized four ways, depending on what you need.
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Not sure what's going on, but something feels off?
Start with the Mental Health Atlas. It's organized by what you actually notice, in the body, the thoughts, the emotions, and behavior, so you can begin from a feeling instead of a diagnosis.
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Want to understand a condition fully?
Go to Conditions. Each entry explains one diagnosis in depth, from what it is to how it's treated.
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Looking into treatment?
Go to Treatments, for how therapies and medications work and what to expect.
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Ran into a word you don't understand?
Go to Terms, for the concepts and vocabulary of mental health, explained.
Find a topic by how you actually experience it, not by its clinical name.
Atlas
How your mind works.
Atlas is Shrinkopedia's visual map of psychiatric concepts and how they relate. Conditions, symptoms, treatments, and glossary terms, all linked together in one picture. It's the page that shows you how the parts of mental health fit, not just what each part is.
Open the Atlas →Each hub gathers the conditions, symptoms, treatments, and terms for a single topic in one place.
Anxiety
Everything Shrinkopedia knows about anxiety, in one place.
Depression
Everything Shrinkopedia knows about depression, in one place.
Sleep
Sleep is upstream of almost everything. Here's what we know.
Trauma
The post-traumatic pattern: how it works, how it shows up, what helps.
OCD
The obsession-compulsion loop, and the conditions inside it.
Bipolar
Bipolar isn't one disorder. Here's the whole picture.
ADHD
Attention, focus, executive function, and the conditions and treatments inside ADHD.
Eating Disorders
Anorexia, bulimia, binge eating, and the cluster of conditions around eating and body image.
Substance Use
Addiction, withdrawal, recovery, and the conditions that most often travel with substance use.
Major depressive disorder
What depression really is, the symptoms to know, why it happens, and what treatment looks like.
Strong ConditionGeneralized anxiety disorder
What generalized anxiety disorder is, how it differs from everyday worry, the symptoms, and what treatment helps.
Strong ConditionPanic disorder
What panic disorder is, why attacks feel dangerous but aren't, how avoidance grows, and what treatment helps.
Strong ConditionObsessive-compulsive disorder
How OCD works, the obsession-compulsion cycle, what intrusive thoughts mean, and why treatment like ERP helps.
Strong SymptomIntrusive thoughts
Intrusive thoughts are unwanted, disturbing thoughts or images that pop into your mind.
Strong SymptomRacing thoughts
Racing thoughts are fast, crowded thinking that jumps from topic to topic and feels hard to slow down.
StrongSee every entry in the A to Z index, or browse by type: Conditions Mental Health Atlas Treatments Terms
- Medically reviewed . Reviewed by a board-certified psychiatrist before publication.
- Sourced from primary literature . DSM-5-TR, NICE, the American Psychiatric Association, the NIMH, Cochrane, peer-reviewed research.
- Dated and kept current . Every entry shows when it was published, reviewed, and last updated.
- Honest about uncertainty . Each entry carries an evidence-strength rating and a "what we know and what we don't" section.
- Independent . No advertising, no affiliate revenue, no sponsored content.
What makes an entry on Shrinkopedia worth relying on.
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Medically reviewed
Every entry is checked for clinical accuracy by the Shrinkopedia editorial team, led by Shariq Refai, MD, MBA, a board-certified psychiatrist, before it's published.
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Built from primary sources
Entries are researched from the DSM-5-TR and ICD-11, clinical guidelines from NICE and the American Psychiatric Association, the National Institute of Mental Health, Cochrane reviews, and peer-reviewed research, not from other websites.
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Dated and kept current
Every entry shows when it was published, medically reviewed, and last updated, and entries are revisited when the evidence changes.
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Honest about uncertainty
Each entry carries an evidence-strength rating and a "what we know and what we don't know" section. We say plainly when something isn't settled.
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Independent
Shrinkopedia carries no advertising and takes no affiliate or referral commissions. What an entry says is decided by the evidence, not by commercial interest.
Editorial team How we build content Editorial standards How we evaluate evidence Disclosures
Why is this an encyclopedia and not a clinic?
Mental health isn't one thing.
Sometimes you need an explanation.
Sometimes you need a practical tool.
Sometimes you need expert care.
One website shouldn't try to do all of those things.
Shrinkopedia is the encyclopedia. The rest of The Shrink Network is built for everything else.
For clinicians and trainees
Curated Shrinkopedia entries organized for clinical use: differential-diagnosis references, patient-education handouts, evidence-strength labels. Institutional resource-list use is welcome without prior permission.
Contribute an expert perspective
Qualified clinicians and researchers can contribute a bounded perspective (150-400 words) on a specific concept. Named contributor profile with permanent citation URL and shareable badge. Eligibility and 10-item application.
Press and media
Canonical facts, Refai bio with NPI/ORCID/Wikidata, expert-comment topics, citation format, and press contact routing with 24-hour response commitment for stories on deadline.
How we decide what to publish
The full editorial strategy is public: what Shrinkopedia owns, what belongs on other Shrink Network sites, evidence standards, and how care routing stays editorial rather than promotional.