Category: Conditions

My husband’s rare drunken disease made me an international advocate

Can you imagine waking up drunk, or getting drunk in the middle of your workday without having touched a drop of alcohol?! When I first saw my husband Joe having these drunken episodes, I thought he must be secretly drinking or at least sleepwalking to…

I knew hospitals were not taking good care of doctors. But when I became a patient, I experienced it.

I have spent nearly half a century in the world of health care leadership, first in management and later as a consultant. Throughout my career, one of my most consistent observations has been that most health care organizations do not treat physicians …

Physician suicide: Addressing the silent epidemic

Suicide is the act of an individual ending their life. It is generally caused by the convergence of multiple factors, the most significant of which is untreated or end-stage psychiatric illness. As a practicing psychiatrist who has been involved in the…

Navigating a rare neurodegenerative disorder as mother and daughter

Before her diagnosis, my mom was extremely active and healthy. She loved bird watching, walking, and volunteering at her church and its school. So in 2013, when she began experiencing symptoms like incontinence and difficulties with walking, we knew th…

Navigating a rare neurodegenerative disorder as mother and daughter

Before her diagnosis, my mom was extremely active and healthy. She loved bird watching, walking, and volunteering at her church and its school. So in 2013, when she began experiencing symptoms like incontinence and difficulties with walking, we knew th…

Breaking the silence on physician burnout and suicide

KevinMD has been publishing multiple reports about the current widespread, deeply worrisome physician burnout and suicide phenomena. As a card-carrying epidemiologist, I have sought to categorize these reports into the three overarching factors we migh…

Long COVID and sleep: an urgent call to action

Long COVID is real. For millions of people who contracted COVID-19, recovery has been a long and uncertain road. While many regained their health in weeks, others continue to face persistent symptoms and health problems for months or even years after t…

The burnout crisis runs deeper than you think

The recently growing attention to the burnout crisis in health care has begun a much-overdue conversation. However, the discussion has thus far been focused primarily on physicians and nurses and has not yet considered the larger health care team endur…

Are new blood tests for Alzheimer’s and cancer worth the hype?

Recently, consumer articles heralded that blood tests for detecting Alzheimer’s dementia (AD) and many cancers were close to clinical availability. Given the narrow window in which AD must be diagnosed for present treatments to be effective, and …

Acupuncture helped when nothing else did

The waiting area in Kayla’s (name changed) practice was so peaceful that I felt better just sitting there. I had come to receive acupuncture treatments and didn’t quite know what to expect. While I sat and waited for Kayla to lead me back t…