Keep Sound Minds

In 2008 I blogged  about how after Marci Thibault, in a state of psychosis, walked into New Hampshire traffic with her twin sister Danielle...

Are we PREPPED for PrEP?

PrEP is short for Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis of HIV to prevent transmission of disease. Recent studies have demonstrated that a combination me...

Industry, Medicine and Medical Ethics

This morning I co-chaired a meeting of the Massachusetts Association of Health Plans (MAHP) Ethics Forum that used the Massachusetts Gift B...

Gay Liberation and Psychiatric Arrogance

Last month at the Lyric Stage in Boston I saw The Temperamentals , a docudrama about the founding of the Mattachine Society , the first sust...

CHECK IT OUT - HOT OFF THE PRESSES APRIL 2012!!    NO MORE PADS, NO MORE DRIPS -   TIPS TO ADDRESS AND HELP PREVENT URINARY INCONTINENC...

University of Wisconsin Physicians Disciplined

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported yesterday that the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health disciplined 20 phys...

Autism, Access to Services, and Social Justice

Yesterday the CDC released a  report on the prevalence of autism spectrum disorders (ASD) that demonstrates a continuing increase in ASD di...

Wartime Heroism and Personal Ideals

I'm sorry I never met Dr. Tina Strobos, whose obituary I read in this morning's Boston Globe. But I have a new hero. Dr. Strobos wa...

A New Blog About Medicare

I started a second blog on New Year's day - " Seniors for Medicare Reform ." I'd been dithering about doing it for many mo...

Should Researchers Criticize their Peers in Public?

The Chronicle of Higher Education recently reported that University of Pennsylvania psychiatrist Jay Amsterdam has accused his department c...

Is Death Optional?

An old joke speaks to how we in the U.S. think about death: In India, death is seen as a potential step away from reincarnation and towards ...

Medicare Policy Needs Viagra

This post is about policy dysfunction, not erectile dysfunction. Medicare reform is so complicated that it's easy to get lost in arcane ...

Dr. Marsha Linehan and the Sources of Creativity

An article in yesterday's New York Times told how Dr. Marsha Linehan, developer of Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT), a profoundly i...

Advocating For Patients

Two weeks ago, on April 7th 2011, I attended the Planned Parenthood lobby and rally day in Washington DC. It was my very first real use of t...

Doctor's Notes, Political Beliefs, and Medical Ethics

On February 19, during the protests against Governor Scott Walker's union-busting proposal, a video appeared showing physicians offerin...

Greedy Geezers vs Granny Bashers

To protect the future of Medicare and contain runaway Medicare costs we need thoughtful deliberation and responsible advocacy. Instead, what...

The FBI and Martin Luther King

I recently came upon a letter I had written to the Washington Post, published on June 14, 1969. (I was living in Washington at the time, dur...

Activist Patients, Cancer, and Medical Care

Two days ago I wrote about the polarized world of health policy, in which "physician-led reform" and "consumer-led reform...

Psychiatric Treatment after the Haiti Earthquake

I just read an article on "Haiti Earthquake Psychiatric Relief" in this month's American Journal of Psychiatry, written by Ken...

Moral Heroism in Little Rock, Arkansas

I was in my second year of college when President Eisenhower sent troops to Little Rock to protect the nine black students who integrated th...