It was my turn to sit for the next 8 hours in the middle of the night at the mental health crisis center that’s run by a team of therapists and social workers with the community mental health center. We regularly collaborated with the local polic…
Category: Conditions
A prescription against COVID-19: Telehealth and ivermectin
It’s been in the news that several telehealth companies are offering patients access to the anti-parasite drug ivermectin, which while rumored by some to be an effective treatment for COVID-19 is unproven. As coronavirus deaths in the United States con…
Doctors on COVID-19 wards deserve better
An excerpt from Your Life Depends on It: What You Can Do to Make Better Choices About Your Health. Copyright © 2021. Available from Basic Books, an imprint of Hachette Book Group, Inc. Doctors on COVID-19 wards deserve better. They deserve trigger-bas…
Doctors on COVID-19 wards deserve better
An excerpt from Your Life Depends on It: What You Can Do to Make Better Choices About Your Health. Copyright © 2021. Available from Basic Books, an imprint of Hachette Book Group, Inc. Doctors on COVID-19 wards deserve better. They deserve trigger-bas…
Self-harm and eating disorders in teens
An excerpt from The Addicted Child: A Parent’s Guide to Adolescent Substance Abuse. How do you know if your teen has a substance problem? The inability to control substance use despite negative consequences is a classic definition of a severe sub…
Treating formula as medicine may increase breastfeeding rates
Currently, there is an outcry against the pressures of breastfeeding, with an underlying backlash against the stigma of bottle feeding. Commercials from formula companies, such as Bobbie, are playing at the hearts of struggling breastfeeding mothers. T…
Could a pause in screenings increase missed cancer diagnoses?
When the COVID-19 pandemic began in the U.S. in 2020, most hospitals and physician’s offices paused elective and preventive care services to focus on treating large numbers of COVID patients, preserving medical supplies and bed space in hospitals, and …
The degradation and devaluation of nurses
Where do I begin? Maybe at the beginning. Let’s start with the degradation and devaluation of nurses across this country. For decades, I lived the devaluing of nurses. Daily huddles from our nurse managers, ER nurses, ICU nurses, and behavioral health …
The fundamental question that encircles the whole practice of psychiatry
Mary (identifying information changed) was extremely pleasant, to say the least. By the time I met her on the senior unit, she had seemingly befriended even the orneriest of our geriatric patients. She wandered and danced about the unit, speaking with …
COVID-19 vaccines: the state of the art
Effective SARS-CoV-2 vaccines appeared in record time, with 68% of Italians, 60% of Americans, and 32% of all human beings already having at least one dose. Most of the 138 candidates quit by Phase 2; the German mRNA vaccine CureVac went through an ent…
