Category: Psychiatry

Recognizing and addressing medical malpractice stress syndrome (MMSS)

Every claims executive handling medical malpractice claims has seen it. So has every lawyer who defends physicians in med mal cases. They know how destructive this phenomenon can be to the defendant and their case, just as hospital administrators know …

Who will heal the physician? [PODCAST]

“Medical errors exist at the far end of a continuum of unexpected events in clinical practice and they are devastating for all involved. Even when care is attentive and patient compliance perfect, unexpected outcomes occur in medicine. Unanticipa…

The matriarchy is all around us, but I feel it most in the practice of medicine

I have always been a lover of words. Confusingly, I have found myself unable to define words that I would have easily been able to describe a decade ago. Due to a more weighty examination of cultural and social constructs, I am now left scratching my h…

Love: Stepping forward or hanging back?

The saga of distancers and pursuers in relationships exists in many different forms. Perhaps the most common version is the man as distancer and woman as pursuer. It would seem that hardly any adult with some experience in the world of romance has not …

Love: Stepping forward or hanging back?

The saga of distancers and pursuers in relationships exists in many different forms. Perhaps the most common version is the man as distancer and woman as pursuer. It would seem that hardly any adult with some experience in the world of romance has not …

Mental illness and suicide: a physician’s story [PODCAST]

“Sufferers of mental illness often believe that others feel they have control of their symptoms, only having to decide to not be, for example, depressed. While they themselves suffer the symptoms of mental illness, they often have the feeling tha…

Why can’t we say the word, “suicide?”

Iconic singer Naomi Judd died at age 76, one day before she was to be inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame. Her daughters, Wynonna and Ashley Judd, shared a statement confirming her death: “Today [April 30, 2022] we sisters experienced a traged…

Why can’t we say the word, “suicide?”

Iconic singer Naomi Judd died at age 76, one day before she was to be inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame. Her daughters, Wynonna and Ashley Judd, shared a statement confirming her death: “Today [April 30, 2022] we sisters experienced a traged…

Shame, guilt, perfectionism and ego: a terrible combination

The levels of physician burnout which are a constellation of symptoms including feeling apathy, fatigue, depersonalization, and detachment are a group of feelings that have plagued health care. But within the last two years, burnout has exploded to upw…

Shame, guilt, perfectionism and ego: a terrible combination

The levels of physician burnout which are a constellation of symptoms including feeling apathy, fatigue, depersonalization, and detachment are a group of feelings that have plagued health care. But within the last two years, burnout has exploded to upw…