“I can’t take this, doc. It’s gonna kill me. I can’t. I just can’t,” exclaims my patient with persistent refusal of his medication. My frustration is met with my patient care team’s hesitation to give him the m…
Category: Psychiatry
Pandemic behavioral health tips from a psychiatrist [PODCAST]
“The unparalleled and pervasive nature of the evolving COVID-19 pandemic has touched all of us in some way. There is limited, albeit growing, research on the mental health effects of disasters. A recent review article pointed out the potentially…
Who should be the first responders to mental health crises?
First and foremost, a mental health crisis is a medical emergency well within the sector of public health. Therefore, the question of who should respond to mental health emergencies is one in which physicians and all medical providers should have a say…
The social worker and a patient who lost her son
Debby Ann has a pit bull, and I remembered that when she called me recently. It had belonged to her son, who is now deceased. He was murdered. She wants to meet me for lunch. Debby Ann is a pretty lady, at least she was the last time I saw her. We w…
How discovering trauma changed this doctor’s life
For as long as I could remember, I had always wanted to be a doctor. I used to destroy my younger sister’s dolls, giving them incurable, permanent-marker-based diseases, surgically treating various ailments with craft scissors. The other earliest…
Mental health among Asian American health care workers during the COVID-19 pandemic
Fear, despair, and exhaustion are emotions collectively expressed by health care workers during the COVID-19 pandemic. Years of health care experience has not equipped us with ways to maintain our mental wellbeing in the face of current pandemic, as ev…
The forgotten letter a social worker wrote on behalf of a psychiatrist
Patricia, she is maybe 40. She is mentally ill. Her mother was shot while cooking in her kitchen with a rifle someone was fooling with, and the weapon went off. Patricia was there to see her mother’s head just about blown off. She was 16 then. I d…
Wisdom for child fellows and fellow children
This is the text of the keynote graduation speech given to the child and adolescent psychiatry residents at the Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City on June 18, 2020. Let me begin by confessing that I am not a child psychiatrist. I am an adult psychia…
A socially distant graduation message
Four years ago, after a blissful fourth year of medical school filled with carefully chosen psychiatry electives and plenty of hikes in the mountains, I began my psychiatry residency program. I started on sixteen straight weeks of medicine, and I was t…
Technological change and mental health: How will the workforce of the future cope with the fourth industrial revolution?
Work is a necessary part of life. More than simply a means to a paycheck, work gives individuals a sense of dignity and accomplishment. Feeling as though one is participating in meaningful work, whether it is contributing to a massive project or an ind…
