Category: Psychiatry

Elon Musk’s girlfriend had eye surgery for depression. Is there science behind that?

Claire Elise Boucher, 31, known professionally as Grimes, is a Canadian singer, songwriter, record producer, and visual artist. Her music incorporates elements of varied styles, including dream pop, R&B, electronic music, and hip hop. Since 2018, B…

Physician burnout is as much a legal problem as it is a medical one

A career as a physician has traditionally been considered to be among the best vocations that talented students can pursue. That may no longer be the case. All too many doctors report that they are unhappy, frustrated, and even prepared to leave the pr…

Physician burnout is as much a legal problem as it is a medical one

A career as a physician has traditionally been considered to be among the best vocations that talented students can pursue. That may no longer be the case. All too many doctors report that they are unhappy, frustrated, and even prepared to leave the pr…

The entire medical education system needs sweeping change

In May 2019, headlines of a study out of University of Michigan hit the lay media: “New Doctors’ DNA Ages 6 Times Faster Than Normal in First Year.”  Using DNA samples submitted by medical residents across the country, the Intern Health Study measured …

Moral injury in health care: What have we learned?

When we began exploring the concept of moral injury to explain the deep distress that U.S. health care professionals feel today, it was something of a thought experiment aimed at erasing the preconceived notions of what was driving the disillusionment …

A physician’s role in enlisting help to prevent suicide

A young man’s life is over too soon. He had been seen more than four times by more than ten different physicians and in four different clinical settings in the two weeks leading up to his death. Each time he was accompanied by a concerned loved o…

Think beyond benzodiazepines for anxiety

An excerpt from Understanding Medicines for Anxiety. Although the SSRIs (selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors) are among the most widely prescribed medicines for depression, they also have a useful role to play in treating anxiety disorders. In this…

The suffocation of social isolation

Literature surrounding the effects of social isolation and loneliness for older adults is no longer lacking. Studies and articles outlining the dreadful consequences of these epidemics have even pierced large media outlets like Time magazine, where the…

Understanding the backlash to gaming disorder

The World Health Organization (WHO) recently announced the 11th revision of the International Classification of Diseases will have a new code: gaming disorder. For those who eagerly await play-by-play updates to ICD codes, this may be old information. …

Doctors die. But the good ones leave a legacy.

In family medicine residency back in the early 2000s, we had a then-novel curriculum in narrative medicine. During inpatient rounds, we would sometimes get a few minutes to write down our thoughts about a patient’s experience. I remember how cath…