“Mens sana, in corpore sano,” goes the old Latin saying. “A healthy mind in a healthy body.” It’s vital that way pay proper attention not only to our physical existence but to our minds and souls; to the intangible but essential part of who we are.
While I write a lot about things we need to do to keep our bodies healthy, it’s important to remember that our eyes and minds …
Why social media may be causing real emotional harm
Our profession is in crisis, but “human rights violations” and “moral injury” are inaccurate terms to use.
It may be surprising to some that I am writing this piece as I am viewed as a staunch physician advocate. In 2017, I was stunned after a beloved classmate from medical school took his life. I felt I had let him down by missing signs of distress — dismissing them because he was …
The problem with calling physician burnout a human rights violation or a moral injury
Did you feel that? That little jolt in your stomach as you clicked on the headline? Perhaps, your muscles tensed for just a moment? Maybe your heart skipped a beat. What was that? An insignificant flutter? A meaningless moment to shrug off in your busy day?
Perhaps that fleeting feeling is explained by the stigma known all too well to sufferers of chronic mental illnesses. Stigma is fuelled by our fears …
This physician has a mental illness. And one day, he might be your doctor.
Appointments with my doctor make me nervous. That’s highly ironic, because I’m a doctor, a maternal-fetal medicine specialist who regularly deals with high-risk pregnancies. But ever since developing preeclampsia during my first pregnancy eight years ago, the thought of having my blood pressure taken triggers flashbacks and anxiety. The silver lining is that my experience has changed …
PTSD changed how this physician cared for pregnant women
Residing in all of us, whether or not we feel it, is an innate zest for life. As a family medicine resident, I live with enthusiasm daily, because I am happy seeing patients, no matter my rotation. From the acute care wards to the family medicine clinic, I enjoy and relish the opportunities to sit with patients. Unfortunately, this zest for life was once lost on me, and at times …
How depression made this doctor a better physician
I was not at all prepared for my transition from being a resident to an attending. Now that there are work hour restrictions and constant oversight during training, graduating residents seldom get a preview of what it feels like to be at the top of the decision tree. I am an OB/GYN physician, so for me, this meant that I went from being on call with a handful of other …
Burnout prevention should be taught in residency
As health care workers, we spend most days in hospitals, clinics, ambulances, and the like — places that are concrete containers for pain and human suffering. And we are bound to be affected by what we see, even if it isn’t apparent. Most people do not witness acute and extreme suffering on a daily basis. Between a comfortable home, car, school, grocery store or office, there is little opportunity to …
It is time to consider the health of health care workers
Stigma towards health conditions interferes with access to compassionate care. Both social stigmas from friends and family and medical stigma from professionals are issues. Perhaps the worst recent example of medical stigma is how people with HIV/AIDS were treated in the 1980s. They were isolated physically and spiritually. While in medical school a professor related that on the HIV floor the food trays were left outside the door like …
People who take opioids are the AIDS patients of today
Physicians have the highest rate of suicide of any profession in the U.S., including military service. We lose about one doctor per day in the U.S. to suicide. The high levels of stress, lack of sleep, ease of self-medication, and reluctance to seek mental health treatment are among the reasons for these high numbers. But those are not the only reasons.
If you’re like me, you’ve been hearing about how physicians …
How secondary post-traumatic stress contributes to physician burnout
An excerpt from Physician Suicide: Cases and Commentaries.
“Dear Richard and Yvonne,
I feel I have no choice but to end my life and am doing so in the hope that you will take this letter and employ it in the way that I suggest below. Please use what has happened …
A physician’s sudden, disastrous day. And its tragic consequences.
It took me a long time to put a name to what I was feeling. Only recently had I started to read about imposter syndrome. I’ve had this feeling multiple times throughout my life, and it always had the potential to pull me backward instead of allowing me to propel forward towards my goals.
I had this feeling when I made it into college, then again in medical school. Even when …
How this physician fought imposter syndrome
Physician compensation in most employed positions is based on how much a physician “produces.” I work as a psychiatrist, and this amounts to how many patients you see per hour. The more patients you see, the more “productive” you are, the more money you generate, the more valued you are by your organization and the more RVUs you churn out for a larger paycheck. But, in human terms, what exactly …
It’s time for physicians to be less “productive”
Spot the word “first” in a headline, and you might assume a major milestone has been reached. Think first person on the moon, first woman on the Supreme Court.
But in health care news, things heralded for being first might not amount to a clear advance for patients. Take two recent FDA announcements that made a splash despite weak evidence that they really help people.
In March the FDA announced its approval of a “first treatment …
When medical experts say “first,” be careful
ADVERTISEMENT
I was asked to present information about mental health to a lay audience. This is both an exciting and daunting task. I imagine it’s like asking someone to talk about fish. There are so many kinds of fish! They live in many habitats! Some of them look more like snakes than fish! There are so many directions to go.
I have given a “psychiatry 101” talk to many non-clinical audiences in …
3 things about psychiatry that don’t focus on pathology
As physicians, we have embraced a calling where we help others. A commitment many of us fully relish. We are grateful for our patients and the families who put their trust in us as we diagnose and treat their sometimes incredibly complex illnesses. I have been genuinely inspired by the stories I have heard from patients and my colleagues on the work we do.
Yet, in spite of the incredible advancements …
Second victim syndrome: a doctor’s hidden struggle
Our community had one of “those” providers — a midlevel who was the local pain person. If you had pain, go to her. She would write you for anything you could want and more. It’s unclear if she was unscrupulous or just inept. But last year, the DEA finally figured out what she was doing and yanked her license. There was nothing in the news. Nothing on the internet. We …
Why aren’t you treating opioid addiction?
When I told my colleagues that I was going to try to create the first psychiatry review course at the University of Toronto, I received the same two responses: “It’s about time somebody did that!” and “What is wrong with you?” — sometimes from the same person!
The first reaction taps into the excellence of our department. With approximately 1,000 faculty with diverse expertise and the largest residency program in Canada, …
Want to create a review course? Here’s how this physician did it.
Dear colleagues, I know you have seen these questions:
Do you currently have any physical or mental impairment that could limit your clinical practice?
Are you currently taking any medication?
Have you ever been hospitalized for any reason?
Have you ever been hospitalized for, or diagnosed with, a psychiatric disorder to include substance abuse?
Ugh! I hate, hate, HATE these questions! “It is none of their business,” or at least that is what I told …
Should physicians lie when asked these questions?
Anyone can exhibit narcissism or narcissistic personality traits or types from time to time in different forms from mild to severe. When doctors are under stress, they can “act out,” or their behavior can worsen. Greater awareness of damaging behaviors is therefore important. The more we recognize the traits in ourselves and others, the less likely they become a problem. However, unfairly labeling or stereotyping doctors as narcissists is to …
How to manage narcissistic doctors
A swimming pool. Most of a Tesla. Not nearly enough to have your kid swapped out during their sham SAT test. Nor would an ICU bill for a stay that resulted in survival — $48,744 is the cost of that. What costs an alarming amount more is the bill the US Government pays annually on erectile dysfunction medications for servicemen — a whopping $8.7 million according to a 2016 Rand …
$34,000 to save mothers and their children from postpartum depression
Get free updates delivered free to your inbox.
