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Thoughts on Copyright Issues Related to Consultation Psychiatry and Dad Jokes
I want to gas; I mean talk about copyright as it relates to consultation psychiatry or telling dad jokes. By the way, those aren’t the same. I used to teach medical students and residents how to do certain quick bedside cognitive tests for delirium and dementia. Over the years the instructions about how to administer…
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The Dirty Dozen on Delirium in WordPress: A Shortcode Presentation
When I was a consultation-liaison psychiatrist I taught trainees in different ways. One of them was what I called the Dirty Dozen slide sets. They were on various basic topics that are important for psychistrists to know. I tried to put the most important points on only a dozen powerpoint slides. After I started blogging…
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The Changing Role of the Psychiatrist in Managing Depression with Medical Illness
This post is mainly a reminiscence about my days as a consultation-liaison psychiatrist. I often evaluated patients who had chronic hepatitis C. The liver disease itself and the treatment (interferon alfa) often led to patients struggling with depression. The impetus for this came from noticing a couple of items. One is the recent l blog…
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The FDA Announcement on Kratom
Just in case you missed it, the FDA posted an announcement about Kratom in February this year. According to the FDA: “Kratom is a tropical tree (Mitragyna speciosa) that is native to Southeast Asia. Products prepared from kratom leaves are available in the U.S. through sales on the Internet and at brick-and-mortar stores. Kratom is…
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Remember The Calling
I recommend Dr. George Dawson’s recent posts on seeing the practice of medicine as a calling and his passing a big milestone with 2 million reads on his blog. I wrote a post entitled “Remembering Our Calling: MLK Day 2015.” It was republished in a local newspaper, the Iowa City Press-Citizen on January 19, 2015.…
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Thoughts on a Study of Sitting with Your Patients
I saw this interesting article on a study about the effect of chair placement on physicians’ behavior when in a patient’s room, specifically whether it altered the length of time a doctor spends with a patient or the level of satisfaction patients had with the interaction. In this study, it didn’t lengthen the time, but…
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Trips and Trip-Killers
I just read this JAMA Network article on trip-killers. It’s about using drugs to stop bad trips caused by hallucinogens. One mentioned was ketamine. When I was working as a consultation psychiatrist, I was called occasionally to evaluate patients in recovery rooms who were delirious from the ketamine that was sometimes used by anesthesiologists. I…
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Old Doctors vs Young Doctors
I ran across a recently published web article that originated from the Wall Street Journal (WSJ), to which I don’t have access because I’m not a subscriber. The title is “Do Younger or Older Doctors Get Better Results?” and it’s in the form of an essay by Pete Ryan. It’s been picked up by over…
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Heed Warnings About Risk for Frostbite
I just saw an article in the Daily Iowan about the importance of knowing how to avoid frostbite during wind chill advisory and warning periods. As a consulting psychiatrist in the general hospital, I saw what can happen to people who suffered frostbite injuries. They were treated on the Burn Unit. The risk for frostbite…
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Complexity Intervention Units Past And Present
Here’s another blast from the past about Complexity Intervention Units (CIUs) or what used to be called Medical-Psychiatry Units. I co-staffed one for 17 years at Iowa Health Care, the organization formerly known as Prince. No wait, that used to be called the University of Iowa Hospitals & Clinics. They’re rebranding. I was looking up CIU…
Go Retire Psychiatrist 