Sometimes a good psychosis or delusion, is less harmful than medication — especially in a person who has previously been compromised by illness.
The first I saw was a veteran many years ago. Curiously enough, he was the kind of “old salt” you see plenty in San Diego street clinics but I saw him back at the Wichita V.A.
Then as now I enjoy the older veterans, The kind of folks who, although they were members of a nameless hoard of uniformed youth, have assimilated the serviceman’s identity into their own. Read more on When A Doctor Decides Not To Treat The Hallucinations…
Filed under depression, Diagnosis, Doctors, Education, life, medicine, News, Psychology by on Jan 17th, 2020. Comment. 
When push comes to shove, any psychiatrist can prescribe anything they damned well please.
Oh, there are a few particularities. Like needing to have a “triplicate’ pad if you are going to prescribe speed, or a “tamper proof” pad if you are going to prescribe something wildly addictive. But any licensed MD can just phone those in legally if you give your “magic numbers” like your DEA (Drug Enforcement Administration) number — even if not a psychiatrist. Read more on Antipsychotic Medication For Children With Autism…
Filed under Doctors, medicine, prescription drugs, Psychiatrists by on Apr 27th, 2018. Comment.
I remember, several years ago, going to a national drug development meeting; the first time I had been at such a meeting, with drug company folks from the highest national levels. I remember how excited I was. Maybe someone could develop an antipsychotic that really could escape all those neuromuscular side effects. Maybe they had new things that were more powerful than antibiotics, which I already knew were not working as well as they ought to. I remember, with characteristic naivete, that it felt impossible to find anyone with whom I could discuss the pharmacology that so impassioned me, for the “big” drug guys seemed to be more interested in the business and politics of the thing. Read more on Could Fish Oil Prevent Schizophrenia?…
Filed under Alternative Medicine, FDA, Government, medicine, News, politics by on Sep 26th, 2016. Comment.
I remember a supervisor from the past whom I never thought had the right personality to be a psychiatrist. I mean, he was a little angry and domineering for my taste. But heck — I gave him a “bye” since he worked in a prison context.
I was never attacked by a prison patient through my tours-of-duty through four (all-male) California state penal institutions. I had a couple who ended up on their knees, crying, stroking my hands, or even asking permission to kiss me (denied, of course).
They said I was “nice” to them. I guess I treated them like human beings — something pitifully lacking in the prison system where everything seems oppressive and depersonalizing. Read more on Assaults On Psychiatrists…
Filed under abuse, Mental Illness, Personality Disorders, Psychiatrists, PTSD, Public Health System by on Jun 19th, 2014. Comment.
I have heard just a little too much about suicide among the religious — from patients, from others, now this; to the son of a published pastor who gave an invocation for the Obama folks.
I really do feel for the family, for death of the younger generation before the older one by any means including suicide by his own hand, is a horrible thing that is anti-nature and has a profound wrongness, a too-deep effect on all involved.
I was way back in residency when I attempted to gather some statistics on the association between religion and psychiatry in Kansas, sending a basic questionnaire on feelings about mental illness (and referral patterns to mental health professionals) to a big list of Wichita area “religious professionals.”
First, I had already made the assumption from the French part of my education that not too many people actually went to church, but none of them seemed to much care about mental health professionals.
In Kansas, with the world’s worst statistics (no major support on this from my
Filed under Religion by on May 1st, 2013. Comment.
Britney Spears doesn’t make the news much anymore. Her career is probably still going strong, but her wild ways and scrapes with the law are old news. The media has latched on to new starlets and scandals, and they will never run out.
However, I noticed recently a story about conservatorship of this once-superstar (perhaps now only a mega-star?), and wanted to take the occasion to talk about this very serious legal step of conservatorship.
Miss Spears’ father is her conservator, and he wants her boyfriend appointed as a co-conservator over her well-being, and this might be a sign that he’s getting ready to marry her. There is something very wrong with this picture.
People having conservatorship over other people should not be taken lightly. Read more on Brittany Spears, Conservatorship and the Abuse of Power…
Filed under Celebrities, depression, Family, medicine, News, Psychiatrists by on Sep 3rd, 2012. Comment.