Growing up, I never felt comforted when someone expressed their sympathy to me when I was in a difficult situation. And I have never been good at expressing sympathy for others. When we feel sympathy for someone, we feel pity or sorrow for their situation. But we don’t understand what it is like to be … Read more
It’s an early Friday morning during the pandemic. I arrive at my clinic to find my 8 o’clock slot booked with a same-day patient. As a clinical psychologist embedded within a primary care team, I meet with patients at varying frequency. I had just met with this patient on Monday — twice in one week … Read more
MADRID — The COVID pandemic has had countless consequences. One of the most significant can be seen in any number of companies: the introduction of the telework model into work routines. There has been such a clear push toward this way of working that it’s quite likely that employees will regularly carry out their tasks … Read more
Actions taken against a physician’s license for substance use are more common than those for psychological impairment or actions related to physical health, according to a recent report. Despite a sharp uptick in 2011, substance use–specific license actions taken against physicians dropped in frequency between 2004 and 2020. More than three fourths (76.3%) of license … Read more
The COVID-19 pandemic has challenged the academic and psychological stability of medical students, leading to high rates of burnout. Researchers surveyed 613 medical students representing all years of a medical program during the last week of the Spring semester of 2021. Based on the Maslach Burnout Inventory-Student Survey (MBI- SS), more than half (54%) of … Read more
Who? What? When? Why? Where? How? The five W’s. I vividly remember being taught to ask these five questions and seeing word-art posted around the classroom when I was a child. As children, we are taught to be curious and ask questions until we understand. We try new food, have new experiences, and explore uncharted … Read more
The negative consequences of structural racism on mental health, and opportunities for change, are the focus of a special theme issue of the American Journal of Psychiatry (AJP), released to coincide with the American Psychiatric Association (APA) Annual Meeting. The hope is this special issue will “motivate clinicians, educators, and researchers to take actions that … Read more
NEW ORLEANS – The patient, a 60-year-old woman who’d just tried to kill herself by overdosing on gabapentin, felt the need to make a confession. As she told a resident psychiatrist late one night at a Philadelphia crisis response center, she’d just murdered two people and buried them in her backyard. More details kept coming, … Read more
This is the story of how a remarkable young immigrant from Ghana started his life in the US as a janitor and, along the way, founded two nonprofit organizations, garnered invitations to the White House, and ultimately achieved his dream of pursuing a career in neurosurgery . Dr Kwadwo Sarpong at his medical school graduation. … Read more
Structural brain differences appear to distinguish psychopaths from individuals without psychopathic traits, new research shows. Using MRI, researchers found that the striatum was about 10% larger on average in adults with psychopathic traits than in matched control persons and that this relationship was mediated by stimulation seeking and impulse. The striatum is a subcortical region … Read more
