Sam is young man is applying for a summer program, a real resume builder. Among other things, the application asks if he has been treated for a psychiatric disorder. In fact, he's seen a therapist and he's felt anxious at times. His internist gave him some Lexapro samples and he feels better. The symptoms of his problems have been limited to his own subjective distress. His anxiety is not something ...
Dinah Miller, MD
Angry Birds: A psychiatrist explains the addicition
Joe Frisch is a staff scientist at the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory at Stanford University. Dr. Frisch writes: "I wonder when we will start seeing really addictive games banned? I don't know what makes games addictive though. Angry birds is a mystery to me - there is no ongoing story line, you don't really gain any abilities as the game ...
Psychiatry residents need to learn psychotherapy
For years, I supervised residents. They would come in each week and tell me about a patient in crisis. If no one was in crisis, they’d say all their patients were fine and they didn’t know what to talk about, even though I had told them to pick a patient they saw weekly and either audio-record the sessions or take detailed process notes. Psychotherapy, I would say, is a ...
Are psychiatrists rushed, uncaring, and in it only for the money?
Perhaps you've heard the news: psychiatrists no longer have time to listen to their patients. It's all about writing prescriptions for medications and the days of "tell me about your mother" are long gone, or so we're told. The current perception is that large volume practices where patients are seen in a matter of minutes are now standard and acceptable in psychiatry; that it's how many -- if not ...
Psychotherapy from the psychiatrist’s point of view
We really don't even have a precise definition of what "psychotherapy" is, and CPT coding has defined it in terms of time spent in a session and reimbursements.A 50-minute session gets coded as 90807 which stands for "45-50 minute psychotherapy session with medication management on an outpatient basis in a physician's office." The frequency doesn't matter, nor does the content of what transpires-- at least not for the CPT ...
Predicting how much impact mental illness has in a person’s life
Why is it that some people have a psychiatric disorder and they bounce back and it's not a big deal, while others struggle terribly? For the unlucky ones, mental illness defines them.Here are some factors that affect how much impact psychiatric illness has in a person's life.
- The severity of the symptoms. Any way you dice it, mild-to-moderate anxiety can often be hidden ...
Can I be a doctor with bipolar disorder?
"I have bipolar disorder. Can I be a doctor?"It's one of those questions to which there is no real answer. Being a doctor takes a long time, it requires reliability, diligence, and a willingness to learn things you may not want to learn and do things you may not want to do. It requires endurance and passion. You need to be tolerant of many things: arrogant supervisors, irritable colleagues, sick ...
Tips to find a good psychiatrist
Seems like a simple enough question: How do you find a psychiatrist?It's not that easy to answer. There are all sorts of psychiatrists who do all sorts of things (therapy, not therapy, specific forms of therapy like psychoanalysis or CBT), and then there's the overriding insurance question. Not to mention location, location, location.We've talked before about insurance, and if you haven't read Why Shrinks Don't Take Your Insurance, ...
