Category: consultation-liaison psychiatry

  • Another Blast from the Past

    Another Blast from the Past

    Today is Labor Day, and I was looking at some of my old blog posts from my previous blog The Practical Psychosomaticist. I found one that I think I haven’t reposted on my current blog called “Going from Plan to Dirt.” It’s a funny post, at least I think so. It draws a comparison between…

  • Why Can’t I Wear Blue After Labor Day?

    Why Can’t I Wear Blue After Labor Day?

    I have a few thoughts on the upcoming Labor Day weekend. It occurs to me that Labor Day often evokes images of blue-collar workers. On the other hand, I think in a broader view of the holiday, most of us can think of ourselves as working toward improving our society no matter whether our jobs…

  • The Thing About Identity

    The Thing About Identity

    I was searching on the web for something about my co-editor, Robert G. Robinson, MD, for our book Psychosomatic Medicine: An Introduction to Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry, published in 2010. The reason I was searching for something about him was that I’ve had difficulties finding anything on the web lately about doctors I had worked with years…

  • Remembrance of Dr. William R. Yates MD

    Remembrance of Dr. William R. Yates MD

    I was thinking about the Clinical Problems in Consultation Psychiatry (CPCP) learning sessions which was introduced to me by one of my first teachers in the University of Iowa Dept of Psychiatry, Dr. William R. (Bill) Yates. I had originally been thinking of posting one of my own CPCPs that I presented in 2015. It…

  • Doctors Still Oppose Board Mandated Maintenance of Certification Programs

    Doctors Still Oppose Board Mandated Maintenance of Certification Programs

    I got a pang of anti-nostalgia after reading the latest article calling for abolition of Maintenance of Certification (MOC), posted by Medscape on August 1, 2023. There is a petition by oncologists to end MOC. So, what else is new? So far it has almost 10,000 signatures. I remember my own petition in 2014 to…

  • The Square Dude with the Circle Beard Returns

    The Square Dude with the Circle Beard Returns

    Well, I decided it was time to return to the circle beard after over 6 months of struggling to grow a full beard. I have too many potholes. I think it takes as much time and trouble to have a beard as it does to shave every day. I found a web site about how…

  • Thoughts on the Passing of Dr. Russell Noyes Jr.

    Thoughts on the Passing of Dr. Russell Noyes Jr.

    I recently found the obituary of my mentor, Dr. Russell Noyes, Jr. MD. He died on June 21, 2023. This is the first time I’ve ever said that he was my mentor. I probably just didn’t realize it until I found out he passed. Dr. Noyes was my teacher during the time I was learning…

  • My Two Cents on the Involuntary Treatment of Tuberculosis and Psychiatric Illness

    My Two Cents on the Involuntary Treatment of Tuberculosis and Psychiatric Illness

    By now many of us have seen the news headline about the person in Washington state who was arrested and sent to jail for noncompliance with a court order for treatment of tuberculosis. This led to my searching the literature about the connection between court-ordered treatment for psychiatric illness and court-ordered treatment for tuberculosis in…

  • Resident Physicians on Strike at Elmhurst Hospital in New York City

    Resident Physicians on Strike at Elmhurst Hospital in New York City

    I read the news story about resident physicians at Elmhurst Hospital Center in New York City who went on strike this past Monday about low pay. The story doesn’t mention whether psychiatry residents joined the strike. The story did mention how difficult it was to work there during the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020. I looked…

  • Beard Kit Passes Muster and Makes Me Glow!

    Beard Kit Passes Muster and Makes Me Glow!

    I tried the new beard kit stuff yesterday. I washed my beard with the beard wash and conditioner. Then I applied a little beard oil and beard balm. I combed it and brushed up with the boar bristle brush. Try saying “boar bristle brush” three times really fast right now! I trimmed the flyaways with…