antidepressants

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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…

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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…

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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?…

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No, psychiatry is not dead. I am called by folks who want to see a psychiatrist.

Not only does insurance pay for it but it pays my rent. Read more on The Alleged “Psychiatry is Dead” Movement…

Filed under News, Psychiatrists by on . Comment#

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One of the hardest things to do as a psychiatrist is to get patients to tell the truth. The absolute hardest thing to do is to get patients to ask the questions that they really find on their mind but are scared of asking.

Me, I do everything I can to break down the communication barriers that exist between me and my patients.

For one thing, I do not even own a doctor’s white coat. Read more on FAQ:  Antidepressants…

Filed under medicine, News, prescription drugs by on . Comment#

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Primary care doctors as well as psychiatrists give out antidepressants more than other kinds of medicine.

At the time I started training in psychiatry, we memorized the antidepressant side effects for early chemical classes derived from antituberculosis drugs and became overjoyed when the SSRIs came out.  Actually something safe and effective and pretty “clean” of risks and side effects and interactions!  First Prozac, which was FDA approved a day I was getting off call and grabbing a few hours of shuteye to be awakened by the morning news proclaiming that the new “safe” antidepressant would be a “wonderful advancement for psychiatry.” Read more on …

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I remember my respected psychopharmacology preceptor always had a pile of a bit out of date copies of the Wall Street Journal sitting around the house.  I asked him why — about the third time I saw them sitting around his living room. He explained to me then it was the thing you really had to read to know what was going on in the pharmaceutical industry.

I remember I rolled my eyes heaven ward.  I was too busy memorizing molecular structures and trying to understand potential mechanisms of drug-drug interactions. I still do a bunch of that sort of thing.  I do it more quickly than I did at that time, but I still do it.  Oh, I will find on line pretty much anything I can in “Newsfeeds” and such, but it is more to condemn than to follow these days, from what I know and can see. Basically, my problem is that they seem to keep making better sounding drugs.  But from what I read, I don’t usually see them as a clear CLINICAL improvement over what I have seen in the past. In other words, I don’t think they are making people “more better” in terms of having more efficacy or less side effects or such.  I just can’t find it in statistics in general, and sometimes even wonder if statistics are not a tad “Gerrymandered.”

Read more on How They Plan To Sell Even More Drugs Next…

Filed under FDA, News, prescription drugs by on . Comment#

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I find a lot of things I like in the New York Times. This article resonated with me as few others. First, there is the purpose of the human profiled.  Changing medicine into data science?  God save us all.

Sometimes I feel the best thing I do for a patient is to be human.  Just to have the pretension (a pretension which I do not take lightly) of being one human being in a room with another human being, trying to make them feel better.  This does more, I think, to make most of my patients “better” than all of the pills I have spent years studying about. All those years studying normative use of medications on large populations of humans.  And they work enough to please the powers that be.

Read more on Human Beings Are Not Computers…

Filed under medicine, News, Psychology, Research by on . Comment#

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Only 16% of all murder victims are members of the defendant’s family?

That’s according to the PDF file that pops open (or opens in your browser) when you click this link – and you must have the free Adobe Acrobat reader to see it. (Fortunately, it is included with most computers nowadays).

Actually, I am surprised to see the number is so small.

I am a little bit heartened to learn that only 20% are strangers.

This leaves 64 % that are friends and acquaintances. Read more on Your Family Really Can Kill You…

Filed under Family, medicine, News by on . Comment#

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I am an expert on this — Anti-overweight discrimination.

First, from my practice.  I remember a woman in her forties I saw in Oklahoma for a routine antidepressant renewal who told me that she had a cardiac condition and had been to her primary physician (this is back in the prehistoric days when I took insurance) and he had told me it was her own fault she was overweight and she was risking her life by doing nothing about it.

She was not suicidal.  She told me she would never see that doctor again.  And she was not going to take any heart medicine. Read more on Anti-Obesity Discrimination and Obesity Treatment…