October 17, 2010
Bob--
A couple of very positive patient encounters yesterday:
• First, I saw a fit, vibrant 45 year old woman who presented for the first time...
October 14, 2010
Bob--
Had two very interesting cases this morning:
First, I saw new patient, a very thoughtful, intelligent retired pastor who is on Citalopram. We were visiting...
SAMHSA, Alternatives, and A Psychiatrist’s Despair over the State of American Science
In my last post on my Psychology Today blog, which I also publish here, I told of my experience speaking at the Alternatives conference...
Chapter Two: Opening Pandora’s Box
Soon after awakening to my crisis of ‘self’, I was sent to my first therapist. My social circles had changed, and I’d begun to...
October 10, 2010
Bob--
Today was full of psych stuff from the first patient to the last. Yes, these clinic days are representative of my typical practice. Just...
SAMHSA, Alternatives, and the Story of an Opportunity Lost
In the last chapter of my book Anatomy of an Epidemic, I noted that if our society is going to stem the epidemic of...
October 6, 2010
Bob--
Yet another challenging day. I had two more patients today whose trajectories would relate perfectly to Anatomy of an Epidemic.
The first was an 61...
Keeping Tabs on the Serotonin Theory of Depression
In 2008, Philip Cowen published an essay in Trends in Pharmacological Sciences. His essay leads off with the provocative question, “Serotonin and Depression: Pathological...
Chapter One: Journeying Back to Self
This blog is an attempt to make sense of what brought me into the world of psychiatry as a child and of where it...
September 25, 2010
Bob--
My brain is still buzzing from my second day back in the trenches. My final patient today was a middle-aged woman who...
September 21, 2010
Dear Bob:
Today, fittingly, was a very psych heavy day at my clinic. I saw the whole gamut of patient situations, patients (and their conflicted...
September 18, 2010
Dear Robert,
I just finished Anatomy of an Epidemic while on vacation.
I am a family physician (and writer) practicing in Colorado. For years, my practice...
Introducing Our Blog
Consider these findings: The antidepressant drugs, used to treat depression and many other mental disorders have limited effectiveness, they have significant side effects, and...
September 27, 2010
Bob--
I would guess that as I am typing this, you are in the midst of a spirited defense of your book at the conference....
And Now For the Rest of the Story
Check out the story that appeared on August 30 on CNN.com titled “Growing Up Bipolar,” and the one on August 31 in the New...
The STAR*D Scandal: A New Paper Sums It All Up
The story of how the STAR*D results were misreported has been coming together for some time now, step by step, and a paper recently...
Charlie Rose and the Mentally Ill Brain
On a recent PBS television show hosted by Charlie Rose on the "mentally ill brain," Columbia University's Jeffrey Lieberman presented a series of brain...
News Roundup From June
There are a number of bloggers that regularly send out news of the latest findings reported in psychiatric journals and other media, and I...
”Broken Brains” and “Beautiful Minds”
When I first interviewed Brandon Banks, in the spring of 2008, while researching Anatomy of an Epidemic, he had recently entered Elizabethtown Community College...
Medicating Children: A “Whistleblower’s Lawsuit” Raises a Novel Legal Question
In the past few years, a number of pharmaceutical companies have admitted to federal charges that they illegally marketed psychiatric medications for non-approved uses,...
Yet Another Disappointment: First Catie, and Now the 12-Month Results from TEOSS
The NIMH's CATIE trial of antipsychotics for adult schizophrenia is regularly understood to have shown that atypical antipsychotics are "no better" than the old...
Update on the Star*D Report
Two months ago, I wrote a post about a New Yorker article that reported that 67% of the depressed patients in the STAR*D trial...
A Schizophrenia Mystery Solved?
One of the enduring mysteries in schizophrenia research circles has been the disparity in outcomes between schizophrenia patients in "developing countries" and those in...
Time Magazine and Anatomy of an Epidemic
As I expected, Anatomy of an Epidemic is turning out to be a controversial book. A nice review in New Scientist magazine, a thrashing...
Hypotheses, Scientific Evidence, and On Being Compared to an AIDS Denier
In today’s Boston Globe (April 14), Dr. Dennis Rosen, a pediatric lung and sleep specialist at Children’s Hospital in Boston, reviews my new book,...