I was 20 and I had just settled into the apartment above her cafe “Les Arcades” at 19, rue Leon Blum, right next to the marketplace of Amiens, France.
It was not exactly a tourist region. It produced neither wine nor cheese. But its medical school was one of two which Napoleon had said was okay to provide surgeons for his army. More important, with 650 students in the first year class and 110 in the second, it had the BEST such ratio in all of France for an aspiring doctor. Read more on My French Mama — Mme. Mareschal…
It was a particularly beloved patient who asked me if I had any advice about improving creativity. She believed, as many people do, that it is a side effect of treating (even a relatively minor form) of bipolar illness. A lot of research back in the days of lithium, one of the first really robust treatments for bipolar illness, strongly suggested it just wasn’t so. Read more on Will Bipolar Treatment Kill Creativity?…
Filed under Alternative Medicine, Brain, Diagnosis, Disease, Doctors, Family, medicine, Mental Illness, News by on Sep 21st, 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.
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.
I am surprised how many patients who have just turned 18 come and tell me at our first meeting: “School isn’t for me.” I try to ask why they have made the devastating decision to limit schooling. When they are willing to explore with me, the answer almost always comes down to the same thing.
“I can’t remember what I read.” Read more on How To Remember What You Read…
I remember my final day as a neurosurgeon. “Washing” a human brain with two humongous syringes of sterile physiologic saline, the same way my mother of blessed memory used to baste a chicken.
I thought maybe as a psychiatrist I had a chance, at least a fighting chance, of preventing a disaster like the one I was standing there trying to treat. Read more on The Decisions You Make…
Filed under Brain, Doctors, Family, life, News, Substance Abuse by on Jul 18th, 2018. Comment.
The population gets older. I think everyone from Washington D.C. to Hollywood has noted the change in the demographic.
Did anyone notice, however, that an older population means more illness and senescence? More illness and senescence means more caretakers. Read more on More Aging, More Caretakers…
Filed under Aging, Alternative Medicine, Doctors, Family, life, News by on Jul 12th, 2018. Comment.
It isn’t just her.
Men treat you different depending on how sexy you are. Read more on Being A Woman Involves Dealing With Men…
When I was in seventh grade in prepschool everyone except me delivered a book report on “A Wrinkle in Time” by Madeline L’Engle. It also won a LOT of awards, so I decided it needed to be avoided at all costs because anything that was so popular had to be bad.
I knew that it was some kind of science fiction, something I believed to be a degenerate form of literature until my beloved husband turned me on to the writings of Robert Heinlein some years later. I read a few days ago the (would-you-believe) Wikipedia article on the book. Read more on Disney’s Female Empowerment Flick…
Filed under Family, life, News by on Apr 18th, 2018. Comment.
What do you love? Do more of it with Meet-Up.
The key is that you have to love it first before you look for it on meetups.
Love includes belief. Read more on Self-Improvement Meetups…