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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…
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‘ay, this here be international talk like a gentleman o’ fortune day
The title of this post is a translation of “Hey, This is International Talk Like a Pirate Day.” I used a Pirate Speak translator to generate it. Sena reminded me about this holiday, which got started back in 1995 by a couple of guys from Albany, Oregon. She says she heard about it on the…
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Thoughts on Suicide Risk Assessment
I know the term “suicide risk assessment” sounds very clinical. That’s because I did it for many years as a consultation-liaison psychiatrist in the general hospital. The human part of it was using the suicide safety plan, which I got from the Centre for Applied Research in Mental Health & Addiction (CARMHA). You can download…
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A Retired Consultation-Liaison Psychiatrist’s Perspective on Eating Disorders
This is just my presentation on eating disorders vs disordered eating for a Gastrointestinal Disease Department grand rounds several years ago. What’s also helpful is an eating disorder section on the National Neuroscience Curriculum Initiative (NNCI) web site. I left comments and questions there, which the presenter answered. In addition, the Academy of Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry…
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What Would Make Psychiatry More Fun?
I just read Dr. George Dawson’s post “Happy Labor Day” published August 31, 2022. As usual, he’s right on the mark about what makes it very difficult to enjoy psychiatric practice. And then, I looked on the web for anything on Roger Kathol, MD, FACLP. There’s a YouTube video of my old teacher on the…
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Psychiatric Polypharmacy: An Opportunity to Teach with CPCP
Dr. H. Steven Moffic discussed the issue with psychiatric polypharmacy in his August 29, 2022 entry on Psychiatric Views on the Daily News. The patient who had been getting 10 psychotropic drugs was found to have a medical problem ultimately, which led to simplification of the complex regimen. This is a great opportunity to again…
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Hepatitis C Testing and Treatment Update from a Retired Psychiatrist
There is a very informative CDC media briefing transcript about why so few Americans are getting tested and treated for Hepatitis C. I’m a retired consultation-liaison psychiatrist and I used to be the go-to consultant to the hepatology clinic back when the only treatment was interferon-alpha. Because interferon-alpha was associated with neuropsychiatric side effects, notably…
Go Retire Psychiatrist 