Mature female patient: “So you’re Dr. Goldstein! Wow , you’re dressed so elegant! I mean I feel really self-conscious! I just threw on a t-shirt and shorts…”
Dr. G: “Don’t worry, darling. You got it right — I’m the one who’s supposed to get dressed up. Now, you’re not going to think much of me.” Read more on Dr. Estelle gets a new patient…smiling, laughing…
Filed under Alternative Medicine, depression, Diagnosis, Disease, Doctors, Education, Family, life, medicine, News by on Dec 24th, 2018. Comment. 
She was an older woman, gray-haired and distinguished, one of those Canadian imports who had never forgotten her British roots. They were as close by as her slight English accent. I had known many people in Canada just like her, who would say “I’m just an old Brit” because that is what they felt like, in the “melting pot” America was alleged at one time to be, or in rich ethnic salad of Canada.
We knew her from her singing. We sang in a “showcase” of sorts in the San Diego region. My husband’s rich and jazzy baritone, my humorous songs or French songs long before my post-menopausal “croak” set in. Read more on Back To The Blitz…
Filed under Brain, depression, Diagnosis, Family, life, medicine, News by on Oct 23rd, 2018. Comment.
Often they are working women.
But people with no employment and no financial responsibility are not immune.
It is surely the illness of our time for everyone complains of it sometimes as if it has a specific treatment and they think I can change the deficient choices they made several years ago in their lives to make things fine and dandy with an instant prescription. W.H. Auden wrote the (long) poem ” Age of Anxiety” in 1947 or so describing man’s attempt to find meaning and substance in an industrialized world. Read more on All The Stressed Out People…
Filed under Alternative Medicine, depression, Diagnosis, Disease, Doctors, Education, life, medicine, News, Religion, Stress by on Oct 12th, 2018. Comment.
I am the last person who should be difficult to convince that research is important.
I have spent a big hunk or life doing clinical trials of psychiatric drugs for FDA approval.
But I am also a great fan of real life. Of listening to patients, something that my patients often complain other psychiatrists don’t have time to do. Read more on Military Suicide…
Filed under depression, Family, Government, medicine, News by on Aug 2nd, 2018. Comment.
Here are both the original article and the review in “Mad in America,” a fairly radical review of opposing viewpoints in psychiatry which, I am often downright embarrassed to have to agree with.
The two German psychologists are right. Their initial assertions are unquestionable, Mental illness is going up indescribably quickly. Psychotropic medication is going up indescribably quickly. Read more on Biological Psychiatry…
Filed under Alternative Medicine, depression, Diagnosis, Disease, Education, medicine, News by on Jul 30th, 2018. Comment.
This report really rang true. I have a disproportionate amount of university graduate students in my practice who are anxious and depressed.
The first thing that came to mind here was a saying I first heard when I was in college.
“A university education is a prolongation of infancy.” Read more on The Psychological Needs Of Graduate Students…
Filed under depression, Education, Family, life, Mental Illness, News, Panic Attacks, Stress by on Jul 21st, 2018. Comment.
My preceptor — the professor who was responsible for teaching me about psychopharmacology — continuously complained about “polypharmacy.”
I would roll my eyes heavenward and give him one of my usual “clever” retorts like,”Who the heck is she? Your cleaning lady, maybe??” Read more on What We Do With Antidepressants…
Filed under Alternative Medicine, depression, Diagnosis, Disease, Education, News, prescription drugs, Psychotherapy, Research by on Jul 20th, 2018. Comment.
The easy part is the FDA congratulating itself for an initial effort in 2004 to diminish the use of antidepressants in children and adolescents by adding the black-box warning that such medication may increase suicidal ideation.
Equally easy is blaming physicians who treat children and adolescents for becoming “inured” to warnings. Read more on More Kids On Antidepressants…
Filed under depression, medicine, News, Psychiatrists by on May 18th, 2018. Comment.
I was not over 12 when my parents invited me to perform on the banjo which I played rather minimally for a family of synagogue friends.
I went straight to my best song, at that time “Where Have all the Flowers Gone,” by Peter, Paul and Mary. Read more on How Long Does This Continue?…
Filed under Alternative Medicine, depression, Diagnosis, Disease, Doctors, Education, life, Mental Illness, News by on May 13th, 2018. Comment.
“I got low self-esteem.”
It is a surprisingly common initial complaint for new patients, especially younger ones.
If they make it to my office, folks often think a medication is going to fix this. What the folks who complain about this are more likely to get, from me at least, is a response more like “Sorry, honey, if I had a pill for low self-esteem, I would have sold it out years ago.” Read more on …
Filed under depression, medicine, News by on Jan 18th, 2018. Comment.