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Thoughts on Regrets
I’ve been thinking about Dr. Moffic’s article on regret, posted on February 16, 2023 in Psychiatric Times. I’ve dwelt on it long enough that I feel compelled to inject humor into the subject. It’s one of my many defenses. There’s a quote from Men in Black 3 involving a short telephone conversation between Agent K…
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MLK Week Redux for the New University of Iowa Psychiatry Fellows
I discovered the University of Iowa Dept of Psychiatry had a very successful match, filling key residency slots in Child Psychiatry, Addiction Medicine, and Consultation-Liaison fellowships. Congratulations! That’s a big reason to celebrate. This reminds me of my role as a teacher. I retired from the department two and a half years ago. But I’ll…
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An Old Post on Breaking Bad News
I’m reposting a piece about a sense of humor and breaking bad news to patients I first wrote for my old blog, The Practical Psychosomaticist about a dozen years ago. I still believe it’s relevant today. The excerpt from Mark Twain is priceless. Because it was published before 1923 (See Mark Twain’s Sketches, published in…
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New Season for Highway Thru Hell
There was a countdown on Sunday for the new season for Highway Thru Hell. That’s the explanation for the featured image. The show has been on a while; this is season 11. Season 11, for the first few episodes will deal with the catastrophic floods that devastated British Columbia in November of 2021. It took…
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Giving Credit Where Credit is Due
Here’s another vintage post from around a decade ago after my former Psychiatry Dept chairperson, Dr. Robert G. Robinson and I published our book, Psychosomatic Medicine: An Introduction to Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry” in 2010. Blog: Who Gets The Credit? When I think about peak moments, I remember this guy back in junior high school who decided…
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Blast from the Past Blog
I thought I’d re-post something from my previous blog, The Practical Psychosomaticist, which I cancelled several years ago. The title is “Face Time versus Facebook.” I sound really old in it although it appeared in 2011. I’m a little more comfortable with the concept of social media nowadays and, despite how ignorant I was back…
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Factitious Disorder and Civil Commitment
Similar to my previous post on the role of civil commitment and catatonia, I’d like to share my thoughts on what little is known about Factitious Disorder and civil commitment. There is not much to say, in brief. In fact, many writers can find a lot to say about the other interesting clinical features of…
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Catatonia: A Special Case in Civil Commitment for Psychiatric Disorders
Dr. George Dawson had an outstanding blog post on New Year’s Eve, “The Rights Versus Treatment Debate.” It reminded me of a special case of medical/psychiatric illness: Catatonia. Catatonia can lead to deadly consequences, which can lead to conflicts between psychiatrists and lawyers. Moreover, it can also affect insurance reimbursement, although I usually didn’t have…
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Congratulations to Paul Thisayakorn, MD!
I got a wonderful holiday greeting from one of my favorite past residents, Paul Thisayakorn, MD. He’s running a top-notch Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry (CL-P) Service and a brand-new C-L Fellowship in Thailand. I could not be more excited for him and his family. His wife, Bow, runs the Palliative Care Service. He and Bow answered our…
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Psychiatrists Cast Doubt on Idea that Antidepressants Work by Causing Apathy
Out of 60 hits on page one of a Google search using terms “emotional blunting from SSRI,” only one cast doubt on the assumption that SSRI antidepressants exert their treatment effect by causing apathy. The rest endorsed the connection. The one article I found on this quick search which contradicted this widely held and arguably…
Go Retire Psychiatrist 