I often get referrals from the town’s free clinic. As you would imagine, the patients often have a unique set of problems, coming as they do from the underserved segment of society.
One such patient, Julia, was a fiftyish-year-old woman who had recently moved to town from California. She went to the free clinic (not really sure what the original complaint was) and ended up getting a physical exam that revealed …
The recent Germanwings tragedy has called commercial aviation’s concept of fitness for flight into question. Although the official mishap investigation has not yet concluded, available information at the time of this writing points to an intentional crashing of the plane by the 27-year-old co-pilot, Andreas Lubitz.
Reports from the co-pilot’s medical records allege he had previously experienced episodes of depression and carried diagnoses for other psychosomatic disorders. Antidepressants and torn medical memorandums stating that …
My husband was in the aisle seat, I was in the middle seat, and The Man was in the window seat.
The Man had one white earbud in his ear; the other one was dangling in his lap. His right thumb swiped through several screens of his smartphone in less than a second. He heaved a sigh.
“This is f*cking lame,” he muttered.
The plane was supposed to take off 15 minutes ago. …
A drug company recently received FDA approval to peddle its speed-like pill for “binge eating disorder” (the very same pill that is already widely overused for ADHD). And it is sparing no expense pushing the drug — a former world tennis champ is the shill and commercials are everywhere.
Five years ago, I predicted binge eating disorder (BED) would become a new fad diagnosis and a wonderful target for pharma disease …
Alarming headlines, based on a recent study, declare that diagnosis with ADHD doubles the risk of early death. Psychiatrist Stephen Faraone, commenting on the original study published in the Lancet, concludes that: “for clinicians early diagnosis and treatment should become the rule rather than the exception.” This conclusion represents a false assumption that the deaths occurred in cases that were not treated.
The large cohort study in Denmark, that looked at records of …
The following is Dr. Pamela Wible’s testimony in support of medical student mental health to the Missouri State Legislature for House Bill 867.
I’m Dr. Pamela Wible, a family physician in Oregon. I’ve submitted my CV, witness form, and transcript of my testimony to Chairman Frederick. My schedule prevents me from traveling to Missouri for today’s hearing; however, I thank Vice Chairman Morris and the Committee for allowing me to …
When he and I first met, he told me that he had a doctoral degree in psychology, was the CEO of the jail, and could speak 13 languages. To demonstrate, he said, “Hong tong ching chong lai tai!” He then punched the door to his cell and shouted, “GET THE F-CK OUT OF HERE, B-TCH!”
I did.
The next week, he answered my questions about the pencil drawings on his walls.
I am wearing my favorite scrubs, the teal ones a friend gave to me while I was volunteering in the aftermath of the Haitian earthquake. My first-year classmates and I are in front of the anatomy lab, waiting to see our cadaver for the first time. Our group enters, and we stand around the blue-plastic-cloaked body for a few minutes, preparing ourselves and discussing the task at hand. My anatomy …
I learned recently that the antipsychotic Abilify is the biggest selling prescription drug in the U.S. To be a top seller, a drug has to be expensive and also widely used. Abilify is both. It’s the 14th most prescribed brand-name medication, and it retails for about $30 a pill. Annual sales are over $7 billion, nearly a billion more than the next runner-up.
Yes, you read that right: $30 a pill. A little more …
No physician, however conscientious or careful, can tell what day or hour he may not be the object of some undeserved attack, malicious accusation, blackmail or suit for damages … “
– Assaults Upon Medical Men. Journal of the American Medical Association, 1892
It’s happened again: A well-liked doctor is killed by his patient. Last year’s horrific death of a physician in our community, a …
Standing on the edge of his hotel balcony, a doctor describes the rolling hills. He tells me, “It’s a beautiful place to die.” Ten minutes later, he agrees not to injure himself — for now.
I’m not running a physician suicide hotline. But doctors keep calling me.
It’s midnight, and I’m speaking to a psychiatry intern. Bullied by residents and her attending, she …
Every year 300 to 400 physicians commit suicide. More than 10 percent of doctors are thought to have depression, a frequent precursor to suicide. Rates of depression and suicideamong physicians are higher than in the general population. Many reasons including stress, heavy workload, sleep deprivation, lack of autonomy, and lack of outlets for personal care may contribute to higher vulnerability in doctors. …
There are many good reasons for Congress to enact President Obama’s proposal to raise the Federal minimum wage to $9 per hour. Many of these reasons, from economic stimulus to possible reductions in gaping income inequality to much-needed financial relief for working families, have been extensively discussed in the public sphere. However, one important benefit of increasing wages has not received enough attention: improving mental health.
When we perceive any object of a familiar kind, much of what appears subjectively to be immediately given is really derived from past experience.
– Bertrand Russell, The Analysis of Mind
I’ve learned a few more things about Stephen Pasceri, the man who murdered a cardiovascular surgeon in Boston recently. He had money troubles involving credit card debt. He declared bankruptcy at one …
Michael Davidson’s death was the result of a senseless act, and it has shaken our community to its core. We physicians are part of a profession that prides itself on healing and restoring lives, and it is difficult to accept an untimely and unjust death in any context. It is all the more incomprehensible that such tragic circumstances could exist as to result in such an irrevocable end to one …
As clinicians, we often forget or become desensitized to the image that society has of medicine and doctors. Alongside teachers and scientists, we are seen to be among the most trustworthy of professionals, yet our morale is low, with almost 50 percent describing it as “low” or “very low.” You can imagine, then, why I often describe medicine as a forest: …
Doctors prescribe way too many medicines for patients who don’t really need them. A lot of the pressure comes from intense drug company marketing. Some comes from patients who aren’t happy leaving the office without a pill. And doctors have too little time with each patient to explain non-pill solutions to problems. Wild prescribing is not new. For thousands of years, doctors have given patients useless (and often quite harmful) …
This past week I spoke with a patient who noted that since his wife’s death six months ago, he had lost 40 pounds, slept a maximum of four hours nightly, and stopped enjoying activities he used to take pleasure in. He found it difficult to concentrate at work, and getting out of bed each morning was described as his greatest struggle. While relaying this story, the man was on the …
There’s a great song by Don McLean called “American Pie.” The chorus talks about “the day the music died.” I thought about that song in my hospital a couple years ago, when the music died there, too. I’ve noticed that our physician burnout and nurse frustration have increased in the years since the music died. Could it be a coincidence?
McLean’s song was about a plane crash in 1959 that claimed …
A friend just got back from a big medical conference at a fancy hotel. The cleaning ladies actually pulled her aside to ask, “What’s with all the grim faces and sad eyes?”
Do doctors realize medical conferences look like funerals? That’s what the cleaning ladies think. I bet they’re not the only ones.
Why do medical conferences feel like funerals? Maybe because doctors …
