December 18th, 2011 by Dinah Miller, M.D. in Opinion, Research
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For a while now we’ve been talking about issues related to psychiatry and electronic medical records. Roy is very interested in the evolution of EHR’s.
I don’t like them. I think they have too many problems still, both in terms of issues of efficiency and time, and how they divert the physician’s attention away from the patient, and they focus medical appointments on the collection of data– data that is used in a checkbox form: patient is not suicidal and I asked, whether it was clinically relevant or not– and will therefore serve as protection in a lawsuit, or demographic information used by insurers, the government, who knows.
From a privacy standpoint, I think they are appalling. If you are a patient in the hospital where I work, you get Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Shrink Rap*
October 17th, 2011 by Dinah Miller, M.D. in News
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U N I T E D N A T I O N S
THE SECRETARY-GENERAL–MESSAGE ON WORLD MENTAL HEALTH DAY: 10 October 2011
There is no health without mental health. Mental disorders are major contributors to illness and premature death, and are responsible for 13 percent of the global disease burden. With the global economic downturn – and associated austerity measures – the risks for mental ill-health are rising around the globe.
Poverty, unemployment, conflict and war all adversely affect mental health. In addition, the chronic, disabling nature of mental disorders often places a debilitating financial burden on individuals and households. Furthermore, individuals with mental health problems – and their families – endure stigma, discrimination and victimization, depriving them of their political and civil rights and constraining their ability to participate in the public life of their societies.
Resources allocated for mental health by governments and civil society are Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Shrink Rap*
June 2nd, 2011 by Dinah Miller, M.D. in Opinion
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Here at Shrink Rap, we often talk about the stigma of having a psychiatric disorder. It’s funny, but society has it almost ranked, so that certain illnesses are very stigmatized–schizophrenia and schizoaffective disorder, and borderline personality disorder, to name a few, and others are pretty much socially acceptable: Attention Deficit Disorder, for example, especially among the high school/college crowd where the patient often gets identified (or self-identifies) as the source for those late-night stimulants that so many kids cop.
It’s not just the patients. Psychiatrists are also stigmatized, and that doesn’t help much when our society talks about the shrink shortage.
Exalya writes:
I’m a first (almost second) year medical student with a strong passion for psychiatry. I love listening to your podcasts; you give me hope for my future when the drudgery of first year classes is getting me down, and I feel like I always learn something useful.
That aside, I am writing to you seeking some advice. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Shrink Rap*
April 23rd, 2011 by Glenn Laffel, M.D., Ph.D. in Research
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Based on their experience during countless schleps to the market, moms know that kids pick cereals whose boxes have cartoon characters on them. Previous research by Yale scientists explained the phenomenon: kids say that the stuff poured from such boxes tastes better than the same stuff when poured from a cartoon-less box. The same thing happens when kids pick graham crackers, carrots and gummy fruit snacks.
Pictures of Shrek, Dora the Explorer, Scooby Doo and their kin make just about anything taste yummier, it seems.
Can this observation be leveraged to encourage kids to select healthier foods? Yes, it turns out. But the story isn’t as straightforward as you’d think.
To study the impact of licensed media spokescharacters and other nutrition cues on kids’ taste assessment of food products, scientists at the University of Pennsylvania fed cereal from a box that had been labeled either “Sugar Bits” or “Healthy Bits” to 80 kids. Half the boxes in each “brand category” were adorned with cute cartoon penguins, while the other half were not. The kids were between 4 and 6 years old. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Pizaazz*
April 18th, 2011 by Dinah Miller, M.D. in Opinion
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From time to time, our readers comment that they are distressed with a diagnosis a psychiatrist has given. They’ve met with a doctor, talked for a while (half an hour, an hour, maybe two hours) and based on whatever information the psychiatrist has, a diagnosis is made. Maybe it’s right, maybe it’s not, and maybe the diagnosis will change over time. Some readers have commented that they object to the idea that psychiatrists must assign a diagnosis to be paid, when in fact there is no diagnosis, and they think that’s wrong. The psychiatrist should work for free?
Since I don’t accept insurance, I’m not obligated to make a diagnosis, but if I don’t put one on the statement, the patients won’t get reimbursed. Some tell me that they aren’t submitting psychiatric claims to an insurance company, others don’t have insurance, and many do submit claims. I’m left to wonder why someone with no psychiatric diagnosis would consult a psychiatrist to begin with, especially since some diagnoses (Adjustment Disorder, for example, or Anxiety Not Otherwise Specified) are not particularly stigmatizing. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Shrink Rap*
