An excerpt from Please Don’t Die. While I was still writing this book, a local doctor killed himself. This was a younger psychiatrist with a successful practice, leaving three children after shooting himself in the head. What do you imagine his…
Category: Psychiatry
How near-death experiences profoundly change lives
An excerpt from The Science of Near-Death Experiences. Near-death experiences are an ancient and very common phenomenon that spans from ancient philosophy, religion, and healing to the most modern clinical practice of medicine. Modern advances in medic…
KevinMD’s 2018 top posts: Highlighting the voices of practicing clinicians
With over 22 million page views for the year, thank you for making 2018 such a success. KevinMD continues to be the web’s leading platform that highlights the voice of the many who intersect with our health care system, but are rarely heard elsew…
It’s easier to get a gun than a psychiatrist in America
America in 2018: 307 mass shootings in 311 days. Recently, a veteran with presumed PTSD shot up Borderline Bar & Grill. His Facebook declaration: I hope people call me insane… (laughing emojis).. wouldn’t that just be a big ball of irony? Yeah.. I’…
Doctor’s orders: Follow these 6 tips to avoid holiday stress
For many of us, “the most wonderful time of the year” is anything but. If we let the holiday season get the better of us, we can find ourselves overeating, overspending, and over-extending from now through New Year’s Eve. Holiday stress has real health…
A medical student takes a look into the abyss. Here’s what he learned.
After my surgery rotation, I was in a very bad place. I felt like two months of grueling work hours and relentless studying were wiped away in an instant by a bad test score. That single number somehow mattered more to me than every positive comment I …
5 ways we can prevent doctor suicide
For Meg — with sorrow. We have failed to address the scale of suicide and mental illness in the medical profession, which is a global issue. Each of us can help prevent doctor suicide with these five strategies at a locally and worldwide: 1. We can des…
Chill out. Doctor’s orders.
You need to chill out. Seriously. Doctor’s orders. Research has long established a link between anxiety and health issues as grave as cancer and heart disease. In today’s world, stressors are everywhere. But thankfully, so are the antidotes to stress. …
The secondary trauma physicians face
I’ve been out of medicine a little over a month now. The first couple of weeks were crazy; I ran right to Boston to my MFA residency, and was too busy to really process much. When I got home, there were a lot of people and things to catch up with, and…
Don’t miss this adverse drug reaction when tapering benzodiazepines
“Alice Woods” is dying of metastatic breast cancer, but she cares little for awareness efforts like pink ribbons and catchy hashtags like #stage4needsmore. You see, Alice has akathisia due to an adverse effect from discontinuing Klonopin — a condition …
