Category: Psychiatry

The fifth vital sign

An excerpt from Narrative Medicine: The Fifth Vital Sign. “If you don’t take a temperature, you can’t find a fever.” — Samuel Shem, The House of God I enrolled in a creative writing course at a local university to better underst…

High-profile legal cases: social media’s role in modern justice [PODCAST]

Subscribe to The Podcast by KevinMD. Watch on YouTube. Catch up on old episodes! We explore the intersection of high-profile legal cases and social media with renowned psychiatrist and author Doug Bremner. In this episode, we’ll be discussing the…

Psychological safety: an overlooked factor in clinician burnout and moral injury in health care

I remember when I first decided to step away from medicine. While I wasn’t burned out like some of my colleagues whom I would later coach, I did have what I now understand to be compassion fatigue. It was a familiar feeling I had felt before, and…

America’s nurses have PTSD: Will anyone listen to them?

My first clinical rotation as a nursing student was on the same floor where my mother died of cancer. And my very first patient was a young Hispanic man with four children. I was asked to tell him that he had pancreatic cancer and very little time left…

Achieving internal balance and overcoming depression [PODCAST]

Subscribe to The Podcast by KevinMD. Watch on YouTube. Catch up on old episodes! We sit down with clinical psychologist Faust Ruggiero to delve into the transformative insights from his book, The Fix Your Depression Handbook. Faust offers practical gui…

Reconsidering love: a multifaceted approach to marriage

Over the years, I’ve fervently professed my love to my wife of 18 years, believing her to be the most beautiful soul in my life and our bond unbreakable. While this holds true, recent experiences have prompted me to reconsider the notion that lov…

Why you (and your patients) should have a mindfulness practice

Nobody can question the fact that the world has a mental health problem. Nowhere is this more pronounced than in the medical health profession. American Medical Association statistics show that in 2021, physician burnout rates were 63 percent, which wa…

Integrated coaching for medical residents

Residency program directors and preceptors are responsible for shaping the next wave of medical professionals. Beyond ensuring adequate clinical training, they must equip future doctors with the skills to navigate the complexities of modern medicine. C…

Psychiatry in 1984 vs. now: Has progress come at a cost?

This essay is part satire. The trouble is, I don’t know which part. As far as I know, time travel is fodder for science fiction thrillers and movies. It doesn’t actually exist on Earth. However, I can time travel in my mind, and I do it fre…

From crisis to solution: Overcoming America’s children’s mental health emergency [PODCAST]

Subscribe to The Podcast by KevinMD. Watch on YouTube. Catch up on old episodes! We dive into the urgent state of children’s mental health in America with our guest, Alex Stavros, a health care executive. With over a decade of experience in the i…