Category: Psychiatry

Treating schizophrenia with long-acting injectables

It happens all too often. You have not been taking good care of yourself. You don’t eat, you sleep poorly, and you neglect your medical health. Over months or sometimes years, you begin to isolate yourself from your friends and family. You can’t seem t…

The end of a life never just impacts the individual who died

To my knowledge, three people who were under my care killed themselves. The first was a young man — late 20s, maybe? — who I met while I was a psychiatry intern. He was hospitalized in the psychiatric unit where I had just started my rotati…

The allure of complementary and alternative medicine

“Complementary and alternative medicine” (CAM) is a category that includes all the methods of physical or mental healing that do not fall under the umbrella of western medicine. Examples include comprehensive healing traditions from other cultures, suc…

The allure of complementary and alternative medicine

“Complementary and alternative medicine” (CAM) is a category that includes all the methods of physical or mental healing that do not fall under the umbrella of western medicine. Examples include comprehensive healing traditions from other cultures, suc…

Why social media may be causing real emotional harm

“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 essentia…

The problem with calling physician burnout a human rights violation or a moral injury

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 …

This physician has a mental illness. And one day, he might be your doctor.

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…

PTSD changed how this physician cared for pregnant women

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 a…

How depression made this doctor a better physician

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 clini…

Burnout prevention should be taught in residency

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…