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September 2008
Take charge of your medical care
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Web searches have given patients access to more medical information than ever before. This is a good thing, because they have much less time to spend with the doctors they visit, according to a recent New York Times aritcle. One oncologist in Pennsylvania says of patient reseach, “I don’t think people have a choice — it’s mandatory.”
Still, there are dangers in self-diagnosing. Web searches return the bad information with the good, and interpreting medical study results and statistics can be a confusing enterprise.
And not every doctor wants to work with a patient who thinks they know better. Clearly, the patient-doctor relationship is going through some growing pains.
What about you? How active are you in your treatment? Has it ever caused friction between you and your doctor or does he/she listen to what you have to say?
Permalink | Comments (3) | Post your comment | Categories: Patient's Rights
Are the markets affecting your mood?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Updated on 11/18: Now that we all feel the crunch of the market, stress is on the rise. How are you coping? What do you do to reduce stress? Sleep? Eat? Hang out with friends? Is it working? Are you optimistic?
Ups and downs in rapid succession. Eyes glued to price fluctuations. Is the market crisis having an effect on your mental health? The Salt Lake (Utah) Tribune reports that telephone help lines have directed callers to mental-health services at levels not seen since Sept. 11.
Some people can’t bear to look and some simply can’t look away. Is following the recent financial news too stressful, or is it too vital to block out? Have you noticed any changes in your behavior, such as increased irritability?
Permalink | Comments (10) | Post your comment | Categories: Mental Health
What happens when a terminal illness isn’t?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
When Cameron Siemers was 7 years old, doctors told him not to expect to live past 10. He recalls the moment vividly here. Siemers was born with hemophilia, a disease that keeps the blood from clotting and is often treated with blood transfusions. He went in for transfusions at age 2. In and out of hospitals after that, he was admitted for pneumonia at age 7 and test results brought a shocking diagnosis. Siemers was infected with HIV. The blood he’d received, five years earlier, had not been tested. But the boy who was given three years to live … lived. His 10th birthday passed. Then his 16th and his 21st. Siemers, now 26, found himself living a future he wasn’t supposed to have. He never planned on college, a career, marriage. He never really worried about that stuff because he wasn’t supposed to live. But, two years ago, he decided he did, indeed, want to live and have a life. Have you or do you know anyone who has outlived a doctor’s prognosis? Tell us about the experience.
Permalink | Comments (0) | Post your comment | Categories: Mental Health
Is it depression or normal sadness?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Critics of psychiatry claim that doctors these days are too quick to diagnose patients as being depressed.
They say psychiatry has ‘medicalized’ normal sadness by failing to consider the social and emotional context in which people develop low mood — for example, after losing a job or experiencing the breakup of an important relationship.
This diagnostic failure, they say, has created a bogus epidemic of increasing depression. But psychiatrist Ronald Pies in a recent article suggests that diagnosing depression is a lot more complicated than it might seem.
What do you think? How can you tell if what you’re going through is just a case of sadness based on sad circumstances or depression?
Permalink | Comments (21) | Post your comment | Categories: Mental Health
The tyranny of diagnosis: Are doctors treating patients?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
In her story about the difficulty of diagnosis, Dr. Pauline Chen writes about the challenges faced by patients with “non-diagnoses.”
“The concept of disease, Professor Rosenberg writes, has historically focused on the individual — a single person’s experience, story and sense of meaning. Over the last century and a half, however, medicine has increasingly decoupled disease from the individual. This decoupling has given rise to the concept of precise, objective and quantifiable diagnoses, diagnoses so separate from patients that they seem in many ways to take on a life of their own.”
Have you had problems with getting your illness diagnosed? Was it difficult? How did the doctors treat you? What was your experience?
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E.R. confusion: What was your experience?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Has this ever happened to you after an emergency room visit? You’re not quite clear on the treatment you received or how to care for yourself once you get home. Apparently, that is the finding of a new study by researchers. And that can lead to medication errors and serious complications that can send them right back to the hospital.
What was your experience like? Where were you? How well did you interpret the visit?
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Do you know people who enjoy being miserable?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
A reader wants to know what makes gloomy, grumpy people so miserable? Dr. Hap LeCrone answers the question by explaining that such people may have developed their outlook as a result of a very unhappy childhood of physical and psychological abuse or neglect. They frequently suffer from depression, are socially isolated and are constant worriers. Do you know any of these grumps and gloom-and-doomers? Perhaps they’re in your family or circle of friends. How do you deal with them?
Permalink | Comments (6) | Post your comment | Categories: Mental Health
Addiction doesn’t discriminate
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Addiction does indeed discriminate. That’s according to Sally Satel, a psychiatrist and a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute. She wrote in this essay that while anyone can theoretically become an addict, it’s more likely the fate of some, among them women sexually abused as children; truant and aggressive young men, children of addicts; people with diagnosed depression and bipolar illness, and poor people. Do you agree? What do you think?
Permalink | Comments (0) | Post your comment | Categories: Mental Health
Coping with crisis
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Compared to Katrina, Hurricane Gustav was a stroll in the park. That was an exaggeration of course. The potential crisis has shaken up a lot of people in the Gulf area. Psychologist Hap LeCronoe recommends: “Slow down when possible and avoid panic by maintaining a focus on goals and objectives. Consider delaying major decisions or life changes when possible while you are dealing with the aftermath of a crisis. Try to embrace change as a challenge rather than a threat.” What was your experience with a major crisis? And how did you survive it?
Permalink | Comments (3) | Post your comment | Categories: Mental Health
Are men cheaters?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
So what do you make of this discovery? Men are more likely to be devoted and loyal husbands when they lack a particular variant of a gene that influences brain activity, researchers announced Monday — the first time that science has shown a direct link between a man’s genes and his aptitude for monogamy.
The finding is striking because it not only links the gene variant — which is present in two of every five men — with the risk of marital discord and divorce, but also appears to predict whether women involved with these men are likely to say their partners are emotionally close and available, or distant and disagreeable.
What say you?
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