Tuesday, March 18, 2008

My Three Shrinks Podcast 43: How Doctors Think


[42] . . . [43] . . . [44] . . . [All]

The Benzo Wars are over now, and podcast #43 is much more dispassionate and level-headed. Later this week, we'll also put out podcast #44, with the head of Johns Hopkins Psychiatry, Dr. J. Raymond DePaulo.

The three of us have been busy with other things, so we apologize for not getting these podcasts our more regularly, but please keep coming back for more.

March 18, 2008: #43

Topics include:
  • My Three Shrinks: The Book. We've been talking about writing a book which explains how psychiatrists go about thinking about approaching problems, such as selecting medications or diagnosing illness. We are debating about how to format the chapters in the book. One option is for each of us to write individual chapters about various topics. Another is to maintain the conversational tone so that we each would have some back-and-forth commentary within each chapter. What do you think? Let us know in the comments below, or email us.

  • NYT: Time Off From Electronics. Mark Bittman had an article in last week's New York Times called "I Need a Virtual Break. No, Really." The article talks about forgoing today's electronic trappings for one day each week, similar to some business' "email-free Fridays." No cell phone. No voicemail. No Blackberry. No internet. This provoked anxiety for Dinah (and "what's the point" from Clink and me), who speculates further about "internet addiction" and the risk of death by videogame. Addiction vs compulsion.

  • PT: Why Psychiatrists Should Read the Humanities. Clinkshrink discusses a Psychiatric Times article from the Feb 2008 issue by Cynthia M.A. Geppert, suggesting that more humanities should be taught to medical students and residents. Dinah remembers my first blog post about Tom Cruise.

  • Female Sociopaths in Literature. Clink lists a number of female sociopaths portrayed in operas, books, and other literary works.

  • Brain Maturation Delayed in ADHD. Also in the Feb 2008 issue of Psychiatric Times is this article by Arline Kaplan, describing research suggesting that the brains of kids with ADHD mature a little later than others, bringing into question the medication treatment of this disorder, rather than more behavioral and "tincture of time" methods.

  • How Doctors Think, book by Jerome Groopman MD. Dinah is reading this now and notes that Dr Groopman chose not to discuss how psychiatrists think, because this is "beyond [his] abilities." (We really need to get our book written.)

  • How Psychiatrists Think. Once again, we are starting a book and would like some feedback from our listeners and readers. The question is about the style of writing. Option 1 would be for each of us to take on topics and write a short (1-5 pages) chapter on a given topic. Option 2 would be for each of us to chime in within each topic/chapter, thus more resembling a discussion. Option 1 is more traditional. Option 2 would sound more like our podcast, at the risk of confusing the reader about who is "talking" at any given point.

    Email us with your thoughts about these options at mythreeshrinksATgmailDOTcom.







Find show notes with links at: http://mythreeshrinks.com/. The address to send us your Q&A's is there, as well (mythreeshrinksATgmailDOTcom).

This podcast is available on iTunes (feel free to post a review) or as an RSS feed. You can also listen to or download the .mp3 or the MPEG-4 file from mythreeshrinks.com.
Thank you for listening.

4 comments:

The Girl said...

It is interesting that you talk about not getting time to read during medical school - it is true that we are exceptionally busy, but I have been reading more novels lately for the first time in years and have been getting a lot of relaxation and enjoyment out of it, even though it only takes up a couple of hours a week, often when I am about to go to sleep.

If I cut out things like television and excessive browsing on the internet, it is amazing how much time I can find for things that I actually give me a lot more relaxation and enjoyment, like reading, exercise and going out for the occasional coffee with non-medical friends, plus it is nice to have a non-med area in life.

I figure that it is good to try to learn to find a balance now as things will be wonderfully busy for many more years to come. Nevertheless, I'm sure that any semblance of balance will go out the window when exams get close, but it is nice to feign some kind of relaxation in between those periods of panic. :)

The Girl said...

p.s. Really enjoying the podcasts!

Unknown said...

Did you see Medscape's "Internet Addiction: Fact or Fiction?"? (http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/571199) I think it makes an apt comparison to gambling addiction, and brings up the important aspect of the pleasurable high internet "addicts" get.

Also, "death by gaming" is sadly not a myth. (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/4137782.stm) I think instances like that show a definite addiction, though I'm a layperson so my grasp on actual psychological definitions is tentative at best.

Great podcast. As to book format, definitely keep a discussion style. I read a book years back that really read like a telephone or chatroom transcript. That might be a bit much, but maybe something very similar to the blog; one person writes a chapter, the others respond, that person responds back, and then it's formatted into something cohesive. Of course, that'd be a helluva lot of work, so I wish you luck, howsoever you choose to write it.

Ladyk73 said...

Hello Shrinky-dink rappers! I think you should have conversation-like book. I would not want a line by line conversation, but a few paragraphs, a couple of pages in one voice at a time perhaps?
Maybe you guys can give your self different font!