March 29, 2011
Dear Bob--
Since you posted about my termination last week, I've received a lot of words of support and encouragement, and I wanted to say...
An Introduction: The Story of Bias in the STAR*D Trial and More
The 35-million-dollar Sequenced Treatment Alternatives to Relieve Depression (STAR*D) study is the largest antidepressant effectiveness study ever conducted. STAR*D enrolled 4,041 depressed patients and...
Letters from the Front Lines
Bob--
I want to share with you a success story that has played out over the last three months.
I have been working with a woman...
March 15, 2011
Bob--
I want to share with you a success story that has played out over the last three months.
I have been working with a woman...
Chapter Eight: “Forget Happiness . . . I’ve Got Control”
At no moment in my childhood-- whether in those weekday hours after school spent exploring the woods with my dog, or on the early...
March 4, 2011
Bob--
I'm going to share with you a case from today that did not involve psychotropics, but I think it illustrates an important point about...
Chapter Seven: Becoming Bipolar, Becoming Empowered
A newfound acceptance of my bipolar diagnosis during the winter of my freshman year at Harvard filled me to the brim with a sense...
Andreasen Drops a Bombshell: Antipsychotics Shrink the Brain
In 1991, Nancy Andreasen began a long-running study of first-episode schizophrenia patients, which involved periodically measuring their brain volumes with magnetic resonance scans. In...
February 14, 2011
Bob--
Recently, I saw a thirty-six year-old Bulgarian man for a follow-up visit. He is my age, with three children almost exactly the same ages...
Chapter Six: A Disease of Dis-Ease, and New Hope for a Cure
On the day I arrived as a freshman at Harvard in the fall of 2001, I dropped my belongings in my dorm room, said...
January 31, 2011
Bob--
Today, I saw an intelligent and sarcastic teenage boy for renewal of his Adderall. He presented with his well-meaning but frustrated father, who is...
Speaking at MGH Grand Rounds, and More
As many readers of this blog may know, I spoke at the psychiatric department’s Grand Rounds at Massachusetts General Hospital on January 13, which...
January 17, 2011
Bob--
About a month ago, I started caring for a fifty-five year old Filipino woman. She speaks English well, though with a heavy accent. She...
Antipsychotics and the Scientific Method
In a recent article in the New Yorker, titled, The Truth Wears Off, science writer Jonah Lehrer discusses an intriguing problem in science. The...
January 7, 2011
Bob--
This is the twentieth letter that I'll be posting on your website. I thought I'd use the occasion to reflect on what I've observed...
Psychiatric Drugs and Violence: A Review of FDA Data Finds A Link
There has been an enduring controversy over whether psychiatric medications can trigger violent actions toward others. A review of the FDA's Adverse Event Reporting...
December 22, 2010
Bob--
Many cases I have shared with you have been interactions with patients who are seeking a healthier way of dealing with mood disorders, or...
December 15, 2010
Bob--
I saw a thirty-four year old woman today for a follow-up visit regarding post-partum depression. She delivered her second child two months ago, and...
Chapter Five: Filling the Void
When I returned to boarding school in the fall of my junior year, I brought with me not just duffel bags of clothes, athletic...
December 6, 2010
Bob-
I saw a sixteen-year old girl for a sports physical today. She plays softball for the local high school and also is on the...
Updates on the Epidemic
Here’s a rundown of a hodgepodge of studies that I’ve come across recently that relate to themes I wrote about in Anatomy of an...
Do Psychiatric Drugs Impair Normal Brain Development?
At the recent annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience, which was held in San Diego from November 13-17, four poster presentations told of...
The GlaxoSmithKline Ghostwriting Documents, Part Two
On Tuesday, the New York Times reported on how SmithKline Beecham paid a marketing company, Scientific Therapeutics Information (STI), to ghostwrite a medical textbook...
Chapter Four: Eye of the Storm
I settled into my new life in the fall of my sophomore year at a co-ed boarding school in Western Massachusetts and was convinced...
A Ghostwritten Psychiatric Textbook Hints at a Much Larger Problem
The report by the New York Times today that a 1999 medical text authored by Dr. Charles Nemeroff and by Dr. Alan Schatzberg was...
