Friday, August 26, 2016

What's up here and our CPN Posts


Oh, my -- it's been nearly a month and that is the longest I have ever gone without posting on Shrink Rap in 10+ years.  Just busy, to the point of being a little overwhelmed at moments.  And the nice part is that some of busy is time with family and time down the ocean, hon (as they say in B'More).  So lots of good busy, and lots of work busy, too.   

I just submitted two abstracts to the APA --proposals for symposia for May's meeting in San Diego.  One is based on the subtitle of our forthcoming book: The Battle Over Involuntary Psychiatric Care and the other is called Outpatient Commitment: A Tour of the Practices Across States.  I do hope they get accepted because there is an amazing group of people who have agreed to speak at these sessions.  I do think this will be the first time a member of MindFreedom International -- a group that traditionally demonstrates outside the meetings in opposition to organized psychiatry -- would be present as an invited speaker.  I do hope our symposia make the cut.  More in the months to come.

Over on Clinical Psychiatry News, I have two recent articles up and Roy has a new column as well.

My editor, the lovely Gina Henderson, asked me what I thought the five most important issues for psychiatry are and here is my post on The Top 5 for Psychiatry.  If you want the short answer: access to care, a need to stop di-chotomizing people into mentally ill versus mentally well,  better treatments, less distracting red tape and paperwork for an overstretched/undersupplied profession, and a more thoughtful look at involuntary care.  

I also wrote an article on Why Psychiatrists' Opinions of Political Candidates Shouldn't Matter and I do hope you'll read this.  I've gotten some nice feedback on the piece so let me know what you think.

And Roy has a new techy column in the last hard copy of CPN, but due to technical issues, it's not up online yet.  I'll let him update you soon.

Finally, 73 days until the damn election is over.  I was ready for it to end 8 months ago.

5 comments:

Steven Reidbord MD said...

Only a month without posting? I'm coming up on three, my longest gap in 8 years. And I haven't ben especially busy, just uninspired. But I have one brewing...

Your "Top 5" are well stated. However, I hesitate at the "dichotomizing" item. Mental health reimbursement is currently based on a medical model. Heart surgery is covered but healthy food (and gym memberships) to preclude that surgery are not. After all, most people who eat poorly and don't exercise still won't need heart surgery. Likewise, an expensive inpatient stay may be covered following a suicide attempt, but not lesser interventions that may prevent the attempt in the first place. After all, most sad folks don't attempt suicide. While severe behaviors such as suicide and mass murder are sometimes hard to foresee, that doesn't mean all psychiatric presentations are equal. Of course, a very different social model would optimize physical and mental health, e.g., assure healthy food, exercise, emotional support, etc, for all. It's hard to imagine this utopia in real life, but if we can show that preventive care is cost-effective we may realize pieces of it.

I like your take on the Goldwater Rule. It should be noted that the great majority of psychiatrists surveyed about Barry Goldwater in 1964 didn't return the questionnaire at all, and only about half of those who did offered anything negative. Fact Magazine cherrypicked and edited the results for sensationalism; their "malicious intent" lost them the libel suit brought by Goldwater. Anyway, I agree with the APA's injunction against psychiatric evaluation from afar. Unfortunately, many laypeople seek such professional opinions to bolster their own. E.g., a patient of mine repeatedly claims a relative fulfills criteria for a specific DSM personality disorder, apparently to "prove" the relative is intolerable. We see the same this political season, with one candidate labeled a malignant narcissist and the other a pathological liar. These terms aren't needed to express one's displeasure, or to declare a person unfit for office. They merely make one's opinion sound weightier. Yep, I hope the next 72 days pass quickly.

therapyfirst said...

Amazing, a post, what, the third in over 2 months time?

You know what I don't get, you have two other colleagues who are listed as co-authors, yet, they contribute what, 1 post a year?

Again, are you seeing more people coming in who at some point admit the inappropriateness of the candidates running for President is just absurd, if not pushing the limits of accepting the sanity of society in general?

Who in their right mind can say they understand the principles that guide this country, know their representatives and the positions such politicians take on issues, and then claim they want either Clinton or Trump to be leader of this country?

Check out the movie "Idiocracy", I think you will not only see the parallels, but then shudder when it proposes what America will look like in 500 years. Oops, it seems to apply in 500 days...

(Don't know why I can't access my google name of Joel Hassman, MD here.)

Anonymous said...

I'm in a relatively boring lecture so I'm reading through your archives.
Glow in the dark cats? Really?

Interesting fact for the day: world youth day = spike in STD prevalence
I'm not sure what that means... but it's the only interesting thing I've heard in the last 8 hours.

Dinah said...

Hi Steve, thanks for your input, I am always glad to hear from you.
BecB: wishing you more interesting lectures, but thank you for visiting!
Joel: Having dinner with the other two Shrink Rappers tonight, we're still a team of friends, and everyone is still welcome to post, but this was always a 'fun' project, no $ involved, no obligation involved and we post as we wish. You sometimes imply that we owe something to someone to post with some frequency and after 10 years, it really just is what it is. I still like to post sometimes, and I still feel so fortunate to have decades of friendship with my two fabulous Shrink Rap friends.

Joel Hassman, MD said...

Just an opinion, I would think if people are noted as co-authors of a blog, they might want to show some effort at times, not just ride on laurels?

Have a nice dinner, watch the politics?!