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Today’s show discusses the telltale signs of a toxic relationship between physicians and their job, with guest Elizabeth Hughes, a dermatologist. In this episode, we delve into the similarity between an emotionally manipulative marriage and a career …
An excerpt from Beautiful Trauma: An Explosion, an Obsession, and a New Lease on Life.
The experience of trauma changes us. Like spilled ink, it seeps into every aspect of our being, perceptibly and imperceptibly tinting memory, perspective, identity, and beliefs, long after clinical symptoms fade. Prompted by almost any encounter …
For people who deal with life and death daily in our work, you would think suicide among us physicians would not be an option. Sadly, it is — and not necessarily a new reality. Let me explain.
Sometimes we agree to do something and can never quite envision where that road may lead.
Here’s an example: For several years, I had written a pedestrian medical column for a respected Midwestern newspaper. Straightforward, …
She was one of my first long-term, supervised psychotherapy cases during my second psychiatric residency year. She was young but still a year or two older than her inexperienced, wet behind the ears therapist, and I use that term very loosely. I was to see her once a week, and every other week or so, I would enter the office of my supervisor/mentor to discuss whatever progress I had failed …
One in five children and adolescents will receive a behavioral or mental health diagnosis by 18. That is more than the number of women diagnosed with breast cancer (1 in 8). According to the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 50 percent of pediatric office visits involve behavioral, social-emotional, or developmental concerns. Seventy percent of behavioral health medications are prescribed by primary care clinicians. However, …
I believe that mental health care is one of the most underrated areas in health care. Mental illness is an epidemic plaguing virtually every corner of the world. While great strides have been made in identifying and treating mental disorders, particularly in wealthier countries, many people remain without adequate care for their conditions. The numbers are staggering. According to the World Health Organization 2020 report, almost 1 billion people worldwide …
Whitewater paddlers make it look easy—staying upright in raging waters, navigating huge swells, and leaning and cutting at the right time to avoid dangerous obstacles. And when they do flip upside down, they can pop themselves right back up. It’s a marvel. But no matter how expertly they paddle, they always have to respect the power of the water. They can make careless and costly mistakes when they let their …
In recent weeks, an outpouring of new research has highlighted the severity of the Black mental health crisis. One new poll shows that 77% of Black and Latinx women face mental health barriers related to racism. Another new study found that Black women are undertreated for depression. Yet another shows that even vicarious experiences of racial discrimination increase anxiety. All this is on top of research showing …
I treat myself to the same restaurant for breakfast once or twice a month. There she is again, the same waitress with those same sad eyes. She knows my name, but I don’t know hers. Sometimes she has a bruise on her forehead or bruises up and down her arms, and I can see through her makeup.
My heart aches because even though I don’t know her, I know her. It’s …
An excerpt from Justice in the Age of Judgment: From Amanda Knox to Kyle Rittenhouse and the Battle for Due Process in the Digital Age.
In the early 1970s, a group of researchers at Stanford University placed advertisements in a newspaper offering two dollars to people who would participate in an …
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According to Chris Jordan, a New Jersey shore native who writes about music and entertainment, Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band performed “like their lives depended on it” when they recently kicked off their 2023 tour in Tampa, Florida early February. The tour will keep the 73-year-old Springsteen on the road for six months, playing a total of 62 concerts, proving that mortality can be a …
You sigh as you see the name on the next chart. “Good grief, this poor woman,” you think as you place your hand on the doorknob.
“Doctor, I really tried. I really tried this time!” she sobs.
“Cheryl, I know you did. But you’ve got a disease, and you need treatment.”
“Doc, I can’t go back there again. I can’t. I can’t. I can’t. I’m going to lose my job. I can barely …
I finally found time after retirement to clean out my nurse’s book bag. It contained items such as a stethoscope, extra playing cards for patients, highlighters, various pens, a penlight, a notebook with important phone numbers throughout the health care system, tourniquets for IVs, and a plastic whistle.
This health care system, which has a revenue of $5 billion per year and spans throughout America, is quite complex. Let me explain.
The …
Like interest rates and food prices, burnout among health care providers continues to rise.
From my perch—as a hospitalist in a large tertiary hospital—the sheer terror of the early days of the COVID pandemic has been replaced by a grinding fatigue fueled by staffing shortages across the entire health care system.
Patients and their families are burned out too, frustrated by delays and shortcomings in care that inevitably arise in an overworked …
Subscribe to The Podcast by KevinMD. Catch up on old episodes!
In this episode, we welcome Jennifer Shaer, a pediatrician, to discuss the issue of physician suicide rates and how the holidays can impact mental health. Despite being one of the happiest countries in the world, Scandinavian countries …
As physicians, we all know what “badness” is in medicine. “Badness” is a word many physicians use to convey a painful, complicated, tragic, or adverse clinical experience. Badness is usually some bad, particularly emotional “bad.” Due to medical training most physicians struggle to describe their emotions or even allow themselves to acknowledge emotions, especially around distressing patient cases. The word “badness” frequently conveys to others how awful the event was, …
As nurses in behavioral health, we were not well-versed in the field. After 33 years in ICU nursing, I left the unit expecting behavioral health to be an easier transition. However, the comparison between the two was like comparing apples to oranges. There was no real comparison between the two.
One day, we admitted a 33-year-old female patient who was constantly angry and had outbursts, hitting patients and staff members without …
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